Anyone ever rebuild/replace their spindle bearings? I noticed some play in my right side spindle. Tightened the kingpin bolt to spec and there’s still a small amount of up and down movement. It shows on the sniper as about 2 deg of camber deflection when I lift and push down by hand on the stand. I’m sure it’s more under loaded weight if I were sitting in the kart. I’ve got new SKF bearings arriving Wednesday and appear the 10x26x8mm are pretty common. I’m hoping they tap out with a punch fairly easily. I’m thinking of throwing everything in the freezer for a couple of hours to help with the whole process. I would imagine there’s a spacer sleeve in there as well. Just wondering what to expect and/or watch for.
Last time I changed my is pretty straight forward. My spindle has double bearing each end and slave in the middle. I did not toss in the freezer, punch and hydraulic press is all I need.
I did a set last winter, pretty straight forward except i found there was 2 top and 2 bottom bearings and i only orded 4. Ordered 4 more and fount the next obe onky had 1 top and 1 bottom. I guess that gently used kart had a spindle chaned before we got it…
Coming out, heating or cooling is not going to make that much difference. Since you are chucking the old ones, I would just use a punch or screw driver to catch the inside race through the kingpin path and tap it out with a hammer. Use even pressure by taping from opposite sides and it should come out fairly easily. Flip and repeat.
Once out, clean the inner surfaces that the bearing press into and apply a light coat of grease to ease the fitment of the new ones. Find a socket that matches the diameter of the outer race (not the sheild) to use an adapter with your hammer. Like when extracting, tap such that if the bearing starts to angle, you adjust the side you tap on to compensate. You should not have to hit it hard to get the bearing to slide into place. The bearings are not a true “Press Fit”. Flip, insert your spacer or what ever and repeat.
By the way they do make specialty tools for this, but unless you are changing bearings every race (like on a team) you can use the method above on the cheap.
Thanks guys. I have a bearing driver set so I’ll check if it has suitable chucks that may work to ease the job. I had it apart on Sunday but didn’t realize to check whether or not my Praga spindle utilizes 2 or 4 bearings per side. Since I only ordered 4, I’ll get the right side done for now since it’s the only side with play at the moment and order 4 more for the left side and address that one next week after I determine if I have 2 or 4 per side. I’m initially guessing only 2 per side because I find it hard to believe there’d be that much play with 4 bearings on a barely used chassis that’s checked out being straight as an arrow with absolutely no scrape marks under it. I picked it up back in early September and have just been addressing things as I find them. Other than this spindle play, I haven’t had any issues at all with it. Parts will be here today from Kartsport…if I get home at a decent hour tonight, I’ll start attacking it. Need to have it ready for my race on Sunday.
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