1972 Chevrolet K20 Rear HO52 Outer Wheel Bearing
 

Evening,

I started the process of rebuilding the drum brakes today on my 1972 Chevrolet K20 with an HO52. I got drum and hub assembly off the truck, removed the inner seal, inner bearing and race. I then started to work on the outer bearing. I removed the large C-Clip and that is where everything slowed down. I cant figure out how to remove the outer bearing. This is my first time doing this rebuild on my truck. I apologize if missed the obvious. I have the shop and assembly manuals. I had no real challenges rebuilding the front end. However, I think with this no spin H052 I have some unique challenges on the rear and cross referencing the manuals.

How do I remove the outer wheel bearings?

Do I have to separate the hub from the drum to get access. What you will see in the pictures, if I upload them right, is that it cant come out the front of the hub. The opening in the front of the hub is much smaller than the bearing and race. It must come out the back. However, when you look inside the hub the race for the outer bearing is flush with the inside of the tube inside the hub. My instincts are the hub and drum must be separated. If true, then my next question is will a tapered bearing work in place of the stock bearing. I have heard the stock one is not tapered and needs a high torque to set the bearing vs a tapered bearing. Finally, the outer bearing seems good. I just wanted to replace them as I was going to be doing all this work. I could leave it alone but I still want to know how to complete the project. :)

I read all kinds of forums tonight and got lots of good information. However, nothing on these HO52 outer bearings. Any help, links or pointers would be really appreciated right now.

Thanks!

Micah

Re: 1972 Chevrolet K20 Rear HO52 Outer Wheel Bearing
 

I use the aluminum pucs that are made for installing races. Find the larger one that will fit through the hole where the axle shaft slides in and knock the whole bearing assy out towards the inner bearing. It goes back together the say way....BUT after the snap ring is installed you have to knock the bearing assy against the ring to seat it. AND the H052 bearings are no different than the 14 bolt

Re: 1972 Chevrolet K20 Rear HO52 Outer Wheel Bearing
 

Here's is a Thread that you may have already seen?

Lots of information in it.

Link: https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...highlight=h072

Re: 1972 Chevrolet K20 Rear HO52 Outer Wheel Bearing
 

I did this about a year ago. Yes they come out the back.

I replaced my rear hub bearings with tapered bearings. Replacing the barrel shaped roller bearings that came stock.

I made all kinds of plasma cut discs(pucks) to use in the press to get them out. That's despite having more than one good set of bearing race drivers. The sized I needed for the HO52 were too specific. I looked at all the sizes I cut and I made a 3.4, 3.48, 3.53, and 3.86 diameter. I think the 3.4(but with 3 inch ID, so as not to push on the bearing) is what I used to push the outers out.

With all that said. I'm pretty sure my barrel roller bearings were good and when I got done I kind of wondered why I did it, but it was part of lots of other work at the time. The fluid in my HO52 was extremely black when I cracked it open so I went for it.

Re: 1972 Chevrolet K20 Rear HO52 Outer Wheel Bearing
 

Mine came with tapered bearings already but I used a small punch through the axle shaft bolt holes on the face of the hub to hit the race inward and free. Took me a little bit to figure that out. I didn't separate the drum.

Re: 1972 Chevrolet K20 Rear HO52 Outer Wheel Bearing
 

Forgot to say. I had my drum separated from the hubs when I did mine because my drums were completely trashed. I'm not sure if you could do it with it attached, but if my memory is correct it would have been a bigger pain to get the support I needed in the press without messing something up, had they been together.

Re: 1972 Chevrolet K20 Rear HO52 Outer Wheel Bearing
 

ADF5565 that sounds like the real pro tip! I pressed against that small lip of race that was showing. Makes me wonder if you could thread longer bolts into the bolt holes to press it out?

Re: 1972 Chevrolet K20 Rear HO52 Outer Wheel Bearing
 

Thanks! That is a good idea too, would be worth trying with a couple bolts. Just go gentle on the torque to make sure they don't strip and see what happens.

Re: 1972 Chevrolet K20 Rear HO52 Outer Wheel Bearing
 

Factory service manual states to use a brass drift through the axle shaft bolt holes to 'press' the bearing out. Make sure the snap ring is removed before beating on it so you don't damage the ring or hub.

Re: 1972 Chevrolet K20 Rear HO52 Outer Wheel Bearing
 

Hey,

I wanted to thank the community and the folks that replied above to my original post. Very good insight and appreciate all the help I have received along the way.

What I am hearing is knock out the Race and Bearing from the front of the hub with a punch. It should push out through the back and put the new one in the same way. The barrel or taper style should both work. My mind still tells me pushing it front to back is just going to run the bearing or at least the race into the groove that was cut for the retainer clip and bottom out. In all my limited experience, a race is pushed in until it bottoms out against the groove in the hub. When you hear that nice solid thud you know it is set. Drop in the bearing and seal. This one just looks different to my naked eye and no real walk through videos or step by steps on the forums. Just nervous I guess that I will make a mess of it and more work for myself. :)

I will go back this afternoon and take all this good feedback and figure out next steps.

Thanks again!

Micah

Re: 1972 Chevrolet K20 Rear HO52 Outer Wheel Bearing
 

Just to add to this, KWMECH tells you up above....

For reassembly, you put the bearing in, then put the race in, then install the snap ring, and finally you need to push the race back against the snap ring until it bottoms out. That gets the race in the right location...