Tech 101 Bearing and Seal Removal with a Harbor Freight Slide Hammer

This one is good enough I had to share. Forgive me if I'm late to the party.

So how many of you guys have bought that cheap slide hammer from Harbor Freight only to think gee, this thing sucks. It just feels like there are parts missing. I've tried to use this thing several times and all I have succeeded in doing is mashing my fingers....until now.

Here is the part that's missing.



Turns out this thing is a 12 mm x1.25 thread. I had that nylock flange nut left over from my frame hardware.

You can thread the piece with the fingers up and they are collapsed in. Thread it down and as it goes, the taper on the fingers against the nut spreads them and holds it firm.

This is how I pulled my spindle bearings.

Insert the puller and twist the handle and it tightens right up against the bearing. Hold the spindle in one hand and a few whacks of the slide hammer out it comes.



Then to get the bearing off, thread the puller back up the shaft and off comes the bearing.



And there you have it. A useless POS fixed with a few cent part. Note, it would probably also work with a nut and a short sleeve in lieu of the flange nut but a regular nut won't work very well by itself because it gets hung on the flats and spins the nut. Tried that. Lock nut makes it real convenient but is probably not absolutely needed.

Enjoy!

Good show. HF has the Vinyl gloves on sale now for $4.99 box of a hundred, keep those hands clean.

Interesting, and thanks for sharing!

My slide hammer has a cone shaped threaded part to force the arms apart or together depending on which what you build the puller.

Great idea

Like I said, I've always looked at this thing and thought, it really seems like there are parts missing. Sounds like the cone thingy would be perfect. Too it didn't come with one.

i biught a real silver slapper back in the 80's.i think i paid $78 for the whole set back then.

I put my spindles in the back of the truck, went to my local parts store, rented a puller like that but it had all the parts, 10 minutes in the parking lot and returned the tool. I don't plan on needing it again. Tools that I do? I buy. I've changed my vacuum pump 3 times in 2 years so I kept the puller the 2nd time.

I do need to buy a fan clutch tool though, just not paying $75 for a box of tools I only use 2 of.

I suspect you know this, but the spindle bearings sometimes come packed in a rust prohibitive that needs to be removed and the needle bearings packed with grease. I don't see the note i the box until after I had my first spindle torqued.

Great thinking by using the nut to spread the jaws!