Matco nosewheel bearings

[Jim Ragain]

My nosewheel bearings could use replacement. Matco 5” wheel. Do they have to be pressed in and out or can I use my “hammer press” and a big dowel?

[Roger Lee]

Call Matco.

[Runtoeat]

Best to follow Roger's advice.  As I recall, the Matco bearing only goes in/out in one direction.  There's a internal flange which the bearing cannot go past if pressed in the wrong direction.  You will destroy the wheel if this is attempted.

[Anticept]

Old bearing removal:

Put the whole wheel half in a freezer. Cold as you can get it. Come back in a few hours.

Then get a heat gun or CAREFULLY use a propane torch, and uniformly warm the aluminum around the bearing, keep the heat away from the bearing itself. Sometimes you get lucky and they'll fall out. It's important that you don't blast the heat too quickly on it or the aluminum could crack from heat stress.

If they don't pop out by the time the aluminum is decently warm to the touch, put it in a press and press out the old bearing, make sure you properly support the center of the wheel near the race well. This process will DESTROY the bearing by badly damaging the internal races, so never attempt this on a good bearing!

Clean up any corrosion in the now empty race well with some scotch brite (NO STEEL WOOL, it will embed little particles of iron in the aluminum and set up a failure site) and inspect for cracking. I had to dispose of one wheel after i found little cracks in the corners of where the bearing sits... Not sure if I did that from heating, which is why I stress, do it carefully.

 

Install new bearing:

Place new bearing in freezer. Cold as you can get it.

Place wheel half under heat, get it moderately warm. It should not be too hot to handle, just mildly uncomfortable. A couple heat lamps do great for this.

Place the wheel half on your press with support on the back side as close to the race well that you can, and set your jig up, and quickly place the race over the race well.

THIS PART IS CRITICAL. YOU MUST ONLY APPLY PRESSING FORCE TO THE OUTER RACE OR IT WILL BE DAMAGED.

Press it in a little bit at a time, and observe your work. You'll need to occasionally flip it over and look from the inside to see if it's seated all the way. Once bottomed out, look around for any cracking carefully, and if good, you're done.