# DIY Ultra Torque bearing removal tool



## Squidward

I did a search and could not find a thread that covers this subject. I hope that this helps someone else out there.

I finally got tired of listening to the clunking of my BB bearings on my '06 Chorus UT cranks so I replaced them. I had bought some replacement bearings about six months ago but I didn't install them because they didn't seem all that bad but the last time I took that bike out it sounded like a bad rod bearing on that old klunker so I decided that enough was enough. I inspected the bearings about the same time that I had bought the bearings and they were smooth and they didn't have any play in them that I could discern so I didn't replace them at that time. All I did was to repack them with new synthetic grease and put them back onto the bike.

To begin with, it took me a few days of looking to locate a good gear puller that didn't cost a fortune. I bought a 3" 3-jaw gear puller from eBay for about $18 delivered. In hindsight, a 4" one probably would have worked better but I managed to get it to work.









When it finally arrived I found two problems with it: The hooks were too large so that it would hit the crank arm before the hooks would fit under the edge of the bearing. Also, the bolt that pushes down on the crank spindle to actually separate the bearing has a long section of shaft that isn't threaded on the end so that the puller will only have a few threads actually engaged when trying to pull the bearing out.

In this photo you can see that the jaws are hitting the crank arm and the hooks are not anywhere close to engaging the bearing. Also, you can see that the bolt is actually partially inside the end of the spindle of the crank.









First, I ground down the hooks so that they are flatter so that they could grab onto the bearing.


















Then I ground down the bolt by about 1/8" then tried it. I used a piece of scrap aluminum I had laying around between the bolt of the puller and the end of the spindle to protect it and to give the bolt something to push onto.









Here is the NDS crank arm with the bearing removed and everything cleaned up ready to be greased up and the new bearing pressed into place.









This picture shows that the Hirsch joint did not get any damage from the bearing extraction process.









On the drive-side bearing there is a retaining clip that needs to be removed before you can proceed any further. Ignoring this little retaining clip will result in this:









I managed to get the drive-side bearing replaced and everything put back together but I forgot to take any further pictures because of the headach of snapping the hooks on the puller and having to regrind everything. To remove the retaining clip I stuck the blade of a flat blade screwdriver under the end of the clip and carefully twisted which lifted the end of the clip up a bit then pulled it onto the larger part of the shaft. Be patient here as the clip tried to seat back into the groove that you are trying to take it out of.

I used a short section of one inch PVC pipe with a large rubber mallet to seat the new bearings in place after liberally coating everything in synthetic grease. To avoid damaging the crank arms I layed the crank arm in my lap before driving the bearing home with the pipe and mallet.

After getting everything buttoned down I reinstalled the cranks onto my bike and went on a short test ride. Ahh, no more knocking sounds from the bottom bracket!

Upon close inspection of the old bearings I could find nothing wrong with them: they were smooth and they didn't seem to have any excess play in them. The drive-side bearing was a bit notchy but that was probably because I was trying to remove the bearing with the retaining clip still in place.


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## skepticman

This is the only other Ultra-Torque bearing removal howto I've seen. Similar methods to yours. The carbon chainrings in their photos scare me a bit.

http://www.rouesartisanales.com/article-6862530.html


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## awiner

I use the same puller and ground down the jaws as well. Works great.

To protect the spindle I just put a 3/4" piece of melamine on top of the spindle.


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## Squidward

Sorry, folks, but Photobucket is lame. I created the account a week ago, placed about 12 photos in it, and now I'm getting this "Bandwidth exceeded" BS.

1) The puller
2) Jaws hitting the crank arm
3) Grinding things down
4) Trying it, showing the center bolt inside the crank axle
5) Everything together and ready to pull the bearing


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## Squidward

1) The NDS arm with the bearing removed
2) The Hirsch joint showing no damage
3) The broken puller


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## raymonda

I did the same over 1.5 years ago and I use a small block of wood to protect the crank when pulling.


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## Squidward

I figured that, as long as I used a material that was softer than the spindle, I would be fine.


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