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I've had a number of bay window buses, venturing into my first split with a '65 Single Cab. My first really major project on this bus is a redux box rebuild. I have everything apart on one of them, except that damn inner bearing on the axle shaft. Any tricks on getting that puppy out of there?

To be clear, I'm talking about the upper one.

El Cheap-o sliding hammer from Harbor Freight.

First be sure you have removed the circlip?
I forget if there is one on that bearing.
Then unbolt the tube from the sideplate, pull the flange loose from the sideplate.
Tap the tube assembly off the axle.
Now you can use a piece of pipe through the
tube to tap out the bearing.
If you aren't wanting to remove the axle tubes I think you may need the special puller from Baum tools that grabs in between the balls. That bearing is the standard bearing used on beetles and earlier RGB except the outer top. 6308? 6803? Anyway that tool with that bearing extractor is about $200 so the cheap way is to knock the tube off but there is more labor involved.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Pablo:
El Cheap-o sliding hammer from Harbor Freight.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks! Bought the one from NAPA. Had to modify the hook slightly, but it worked great once I did.

You've got a snug housing, and that's a good sign.

That's good to hear, since when I pulled the cover off the first time, one of the bearings came falling out in pieces onto the driveway. Luckily, no gear damage.

Yikes.

I used to replace these ball bearings with roller bearing equivalents. But it's been many years, but I recall that there was at least one thing to watch out for: the U.S. equivalent is perhaps a half thou (.0005") tighter fit, and should only be installed after polishing the shaft.

I didn't have any problem with pressing that on at all, but I also made sure I had German parts, too, which probably helped.

Well live and learn! How do you get the crook from the slide hammer into the bearing?
Seems like there wasn't an easy way to do it.
John

Well, it wasn't easy. I had to modify the hook a little, grinding the outside corner to a round, and deepening the hook part a little, making what was originally an 'L' shape more like a 'J'. After doing that, I slipped it into the bearing, hook pointing up, and it grabbed onto the inner lip of the outer bearing race. It held pretty well, and from there it was a walk in the park.