Outer bearing shell stuck in headtube. Help.

velo.2010

Removed the bottom bearing from my bike but the outer shell/ring remains stuck inside headtube. I know there is a Parktool for cup removal but only the outer shell remains and that seems to be tucked into a recess in the HT. There is no clear way in to prise it out. Tried ice cubes to shrink it but no luck.

Any thoughts?

fattywilliams

I take it you mean head set not bottom bracket? And you talking about the cups? If so try a tap with a big flat headed screw driver from inside the headtube go gently though

velo.2010

Hi,
I should have been clearer. Its an integrated headset without cups. The bearings press (very tightly) into headtube. The inner shell, bearings and seals came out. The outer shell remains in the frame. Difficult to get any purchase on it as it sits recessed. May have to dremel or find a mechanic who's good with those Parktool removers.

I'm simply worried about damaging the frame if any force is needed to get it out. This guy had a similar problem with a hub bearing.
http://www.bikeforums.net/bicycle-mecha ... k-hub.html

sungod

assume you mean the bearing has come apart, so the inner race, balls, cage, seals came out, leaving the outer race stuck in the frame

if the edges of the race are accessible from behind, a cup removal tool should do it, or as above go around the edge carefully tapping with a screwdriver/whatever

otherwise a blind bearing remover, this fits in the race then expands to clamp tight, allowing the lot knocked out

velo.2010

Thanks for that sungod. Yeah the outer 'race' is how I should have described it. Anyway, I now have a list of options I can talk through with a good mechanic. The blind bearing remover seems to least likely to do any damage to the frame itself.

sungod

what's the frame material?

if it's aluminium, you can try to get enough temperature gradient to exploit the difference in expansion between al and steel - ice cubes won't do much, pour boiling water over that end of the head tube (outside it), and/or apply freezer spray to the race (the type that gets way below zero, put something directly behind the race so that the spray doesn't get inside the heat tube and cool it too)

this should be enough to get it from press fit to slip fit, you need to work fast, probably best to have someone doing the spray which the other gets ready to gently tap it out

velo.2010

Boiling water on an anodized Alu frame... is that safe?

The blind bearing puller might not be an option given the width of the race. Widest pullers are for intact bearings which are narrower than my stuck race.

sungod

velo.2010 wrote:

Boiling water on an anodized Alu frame... is that safe?

al frames are heat treated at far higher temperature, boiling water won't hurt it

velo.2010 wrote:

The blind bearing puller might not be an option given the width of the race. Widest pullers are for intact bearings which are narrower than my stuck race.

who told you that one? there're blind pullers for diameters a few times larger than the entire headtube!

velo.2010

I'll give the bearing puller a go in that case!

Thank you for your help sungod. Much appreciated.

mamba80

when i had same issue i put the entire HT in a bowl of boiling water (after soaking over night in penetrating oil) rather than pouring it on, then used a small sharpened flat screw driver and prised bearing out, as like yours bearing sat in recessed housing.

wiwaxy

I had this problem only last week in my carbon framed road bike. I used a cloth to cover the flat head screwdriver and carefully tapped it out with a hammer from above. It took a while and I was VERY careful but the b*****d did eventually come out without any damage being caused.