The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Help! Stuck Pilot Bearing

I have tried pullers and even the ol' Grease Trick, but the Pilot Bearing has not moved at all. This bearing seems to be brass. Any Suggestions?

Run a tap in it, whatever fits and cuts threads, then replace with a bolt of that size and use the bolt to bottom out in the hole and force/jack the busing out.

Grigg

So running the bolt through the pilot bearing wont do anything to the crankshaft?

No it wont, however if you want a little bit safer way go to a local hardware store and pick up a thin saw blade, use it to cut through the bearing/bushing and use a pick or screwdriver to bend it up and out.

Nope, won't hurt it at all,

I believe a 5/8" standard thread tap works well on the Chevy pilot bushing. It's not really necessary to put a bolt in the hole; just keep cranking on the tap when it bottoms out. The bushing will just walk out of the hole and climb up the tap.
Jerry

Stuff some wet toilet paper into the center and pound it down with something the same diameter as the hole. When it's pounded down some add more toilet paper and pound some more. Worked for me and I got the tip here on Stovebolt.

Larry

I take an air chisel & whack it into.

Thanks for all the help. I had no luck with the toilet paper trick. I think I will try to tap it out for now.

Have you checked AutoZone about borrowing a Pilot Bearing Puller & Slide Hammer? Check the diameter of your pilot hole against the minimum diameter of the puller fingers (some fingers cannot be closed enough to fit into the pilot hole).

Yes and the puller fingers would not fit through the bearing. But I rented one from Advance auto Parts, this one spreads the fingers out behind the bearing, and works the same way as a harmonic balancer puller, or steering wheel puller, although this was unsucessful.

You must have one badly stuck bearing. The grease trick has always worked for me.

I would soak the bearing outer race with PB Blaster for a few 30 minutes to a 1 hour them take a "brass" drift punch and tap the outer race all the way around. Weather its a Brass bushing or a Bearing you could do the same on both as I would replace either one. I hope someone didn't coat the outer surface with RED LOCKTITE! You said you rented a puller was it a slide hammer type?
62Blue
Don

I rented two, one was a slide hammer and the other was like a pulley puller. I have found this is more common than I thought, open this link: http://forums.chevyhiperformance.co...lot-bearing-stuck-please-help/index.html

You have to wedge a bolt of something between the fingers of the puller to keep them from slipping out.
Scott

i had oe in a 250 the grease trick failed and i actually broke a pilot bearing puller on a slide hammer. the tap cutting the threads worked like a charm, and it was a lot less effort. that puller threw sparks like flint rock when it came apart!! hr

I have used the grease trick several times and never had it fail to loosen the pilot brg. Just make sure you have a bolt or punch that fits tight in the hole, hit it hard with a BFH and it will move, it's a simple law of physics. Just make sure the cavity in the crankshaft is completely full of wheel bearing grease.

As a last resort, thread the bushing with a 1/4" or 3/8" pipe thread, and adapt down to a grease fitting with a 1/8" pipe thread. Put the grease gun on it and pump it out. I can't imagine that it wouldn't move with several hundred PSI of grease pressure.
Jerry

I hadn't thought of that for this application.. Great idea!
But now that you mention it I've seen a tool for just that, a tapered threaded adapter with a grease fitting: http://www.lislecorp.com/tool_detail.cfm?detail=1098 should be able to get it at one of your local auto parts store, or they can order it for you.

A normal grease gun puts out 6,000 PSI, and a high pressure one puts out 10,000 PSI.
Multiply that by the area you will be acting on, the outside diameter of the bushing.
I'll guess it's 1.25" OD or 0.625" R,
Area is 3.1415 X R X R. So an area of 1.227 square inches.
Multiply that by the pressure, so 7,300 lb for a normal grease gun, or 12,200 lb for a high pressure one.

6 tons should move that bushing right?.

Grigg

Ok so last night I decided to give it a few more tries with the grease and it moved about 1/4" and I was thrilled. But then it stopped moving.I kept filling the hole up with grease but it oozes out in between the bearing and the crank. I guess now that it is loose, I will be able to pull with the puller because it should not be that much harder.

Thanks
Lance

Some of the old guy mechamics will fill the hole with grease and find a sutible dowl rod that just fits the inside of the bushing and use a big hammer to compress the grease. It in turn will push the bushing out.

Finally I had some success. It seems that the object I was using was to small in length. I was using the input shaft on the old tranny because it was a tight fit, although what I could not see is that the pilot bearing was hitting the splines, so no grease was being compressed. I took the new pilot bearing to school today and found a longer bolt that would fit.

Thanks again
Lance

Lance -
Hope you got it out, but if you didn't, the tap works better than anything else I've ever tried and I've tried all of the ways. It also isn't as messy as the grease. Once you get it started, you keep turning the tap and that bearing just backs right out.
Good luck!
Joe

in the work i do i have to remove bearing races that have no way to get behind them to drive them out so i have a dremel tool with a flexible shaft on it. use the reinforced cutoff wheels they sell and that bushing will be out in minutes. i have 3 dremels,one with 90 degree attachment,one with flexible attachment and one setup standard. sounds like overkill but when your on the job it really makes a no-fun job bearable not having to switch attachments.