Question about rebuilding UMI steering on Blaster

[FLY6584]

Alright so I finally got the old bearings out of my UMI steering assembly and I just got the 2 new bearings and o-ring from UMI in the mail.

My question is how do you put the new bearings back in. UMI told me they had to be pressed in. Can I just use a rubber mallet and bang them in?

Thanks for any help. I just don't want to mess it up. It was a pain in the arse to get the old ones out.

Any other advice on rebuilding a UMI Steering system would also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dan

 

[keefer]

Hope you did not pay too much for those bearings from UMI. I just went to a local bearing house and bought mine and they installed relatively easy. Just get them started by tapping around the circumference and make them go in evenly then just use a big socket that is almost the same size as the OD of the bearing and use a mallet to drive them the rest of the way in until they seat. A press is the best way but most of us don't have a press lying around. Good luck

 

[feartheride]

Not familiar with blaster but same principles apply if your pressing into a bore,you should use somthing of the same o.d. to press or hammer them in,a socket is usually a close fit.Same goes for putting them over a shaft Ussually with something like that you probably have to put them in the bore first and the slide the shaft through. You can heat bearings up in oven at 200 to get them over a shaft or you can heat up the housing in oven or put bearings in freezer.If you have a hard time getting bearings out of aluminum dropping the hole piece in hot water works well

 

[keefer]

When I did mine they were pretty rusty and rough. I just used a long rod to reach the lower bearing and drove it out. Used the same method for the top bearing once the bottom was out. After wiping the bore out, the new bearings went in at room temp with no problems. Good luck

 

[FLY6584]

When I did mine they were pretty rusty and rough. I just used a long rod to reach the lower bearing and drove it out. Used the same method for the top bearing once the bottom was out. After wiping the bore out, the new bearings went in at room temp with no problems. Good luck

Thats what I did for the bottom bearing, but the top bearing broke in part becuase it was so rusted. The only thing that was left was the outer rim of the bearing which was inside the housing and there was no way to get anything on it to get it out. We ended up having to cut it out.

Thanks for the help.