We're trying to get the pilot bearing off of my brother's '89 GXL. It just doesn't wanna come out though. We broke 2 pilot bearing pullers on it in one afternoon. Is there a way to grind it out or some other way?


Craig

 

Pack it w/ wheel bearing grease or SOAKING wet paper towel shreds. Then get a dowel, or a bolt just smaller than the i.d. of the bearing stick it in till it's on the paper towels/ grease and give it a smack with a good size hammer. may have to be done 2 or 3 times.
The water/ grease will hyrdolock behind the bearing and pop it out when you hit it. or it should.

 

Good luck with that method... i tried many times and no luck. Get your hands on a dremel and grind that sucker out.

Or get a chisel and a hammer and brake it into pieces.

Either way once you get it out get a BIG hammer and smash that **** into little pieces, you will feel better

 

Grind it with a dremel.

 

I just finished pulling my pilot bearing about an hour ago and had simmilar problems. Initially my car borke down on me on the way tho work and I couldnt get it into gear. I suspected that it was the clutch hydrolics and bleed the system. As it turns out after pulling the tranny the release bearing was gummed up and sticking to the input shaft. But my main problem was that the input bearing was all torn up. I have no idea why this occured, only to think that it was a defective bearing.

Anyhow all that was left in the E-shaft was the outer race of hte bearing and a bunch of needles from the pilot. I rented a puler from the local "kragen" but the head of the tool was to thick. In the past I had to grind down the tip to give it a flat edge to grab the bearing as well as shim the inside of the tool to keep it from bending. This method has worked for me before but I cannot guarantee it every time due to the quality of the tool.

The for sure way to get the pilot bearing out as a last resort is grind down or remove the inner part of the bearing where the needles reside, and continue grind until you barely reach the surface of the E-shaft. THen get yourself a strong punch or flat-head driver and punch away the lip of material untill you can bend it over on itself. This will allow you get a hold of it with some needle nose pliers and your done.

Note that I used a air die grinder with a high speed carbide bit, but a dremel tool with the propper cutting bit should work fine too.

Good luck to you. I know the fustration you having I was there all afternoon.

P.S. Be carefull not to cut into or damage the inner wall of the E-shaft. Just use caution and patience when making your cut.

Craig L.
10th Aniv

 

Yeah that sumbitch pilot bearing broke two damn pullers and didnt even move, but tommorow its coming out for sure.

 

When I rebuilt my engine I also found a blown up pilot bearing. Well, two of them really.... Some jackass crammed the new bearing on top of the old race and I got the pleasure of grinding the two of them out. Fortunately my e-shaft was in a vise at the time and I could position it where I wanted while working on those bastards. I'd love to find the moron who did that. I'd find a couple things to double cram in them.

 

I use a valve guide puller. 30 bucks at advance. It works just like the mazda PB removal tool. Buy it once and save years of headaches