Drum Bearings

[Greg Moore]

Have an older 50's/60's Asplundh drum. It should have bearings while I'm going through everything else. Still spin freely and can't induce play with a pry bar but they do have noticable growl. I did look at a series of youtube videos using a portable press where the owner pressed the shaft right out of the drum/housings. Having a hard time believing that's really required?! I did back off the bearing retainers, sealed bearings underneath with a circlip on the shaft. Unlike the youtube guy, my shaft drops in size just beyond the circlip. Pulley side will certain suck as there's a broken bolt in the drive off hole now. Flywheel maybe OK,, who knows.

Anyone done one like this? My view of it is there are 2 removal holes in the bearing housings, I'd expect these to drive the bearings off the shaft (once circlip and flywheel/pulley are off) then remove outer race and done.. I don't normally expect circlips on bearings that required a hydraulic press to install so I'm assuming they're just friction fit..

Don't want to proceed if the porta-press is required, they're not that noisy and this machine will likely see about 100hrs with us then down the road it goes.. Being around 1958 Altec only offered up 'no parts or manuals available for that age of machine'

 

[Eq Broker]

Greg,

Bearings can be cutoff as well. Pull the drum out cutoff the bearings and look for damage to the shaft. If there's a groove in the shaft, it will have to be replaced or a machine shop will have to build it back up. If the shaft is fine, you can use emery cloth and clean up the bearing seat prior to replacing the bearings.

Hope this helps!

Dave
Global Equipment Exporters
770-420-6400

 

[Greg Moore]

Thanks for the reply Dave but I'm not sure what chipper you have in mind. Drum isn't coming out unless the shaft is pushed out first. I've read over a dozen posts here about the type of bearing I have, all said 'went pretty easy' or 'I'll post back when it's finished' but of course no one posted back and those that said it went easy didn't say _what_ they had to do..