) Shawn said to press on the inside ring when pushing them out and press on the outside ring when pressing them back in. I have a handle on what needs to be done but just looking for some set up tips on what was the most successful way.
The Enduro Max bearings that Enduro uses in their kit made for the Mojo are excellent bearings. I can recommend these or Phil Wood bearings, or the Enduro hybrid ceramics.
As far as removing the bearings, heating them can help. Easiest thing to do is to put them in the oven at 130ish until they're warm, and then press or pull the bearings out while they're still toasty.
Be careful when you remove the bearings that you support them properly so that you don't mangle the linkage. I'm trying to think of an easy way to describe what I mean. The upper linkage is a good example. Imagine that you were to try to press out one of the rear bearings on the upper linkage (Lopes) by pushing on the inner race of one bearing, but you pushed against the opposite outside side of the linkage for leverage. This would be the easiest way to get leverage, but what you'll end up doing is bending the two arms of the link towards eachother and ruining it. Instead, you have to push against the opposite side of the same arm. An easy, low tech way to do this is to get some sockets that are the right size - one should be small enough to push through the hole in the link, but will actually push on the bearing itself, and on the other side you put the open end of a socket with an opening big enough for the whole bearing to go into. The lips of this second socket push against the link itself, around the bearing. Now get a long bolt, thread it through both sockets, put a nut on the end, tighten the whole thing down and voila, the bearing pushes out.
Repeat for all the other bearing. Reinstallation is basically the same thing, but in reverse.
If you look at the fancy bearing presses, they do exactly what I just described above, but they're just a higher quality tool for the same job. The Enduro bearing press is nice. Get one of those and a blind bearing puller and you'll be all set for maintaining wheels, links, and lots of other stuff.
Regarding maintaining bearings without replacing them, here's what you do: Get a dental pick, or carefully use a safety pin, and very carefully poke under the edge of the seal then pry it off. You don't need to, and can't really, disassemble the bearings further than this. Take seals off both sides using the pick, then use whatever serious degreasing solvent you have available and clean all the ook out of the bearing. Get it completely clean and dry, and then squirt it completely full of a good waterproof grease, pop the seals back on, and tada, bearing good to go again.
One other thought. I ended up buying an extra lower and upper link so that I would always have a spare, so no down time if I had to order bearings. When I need to replace bearings, I just throw on the other link, then at my leisure get new bearings and replace them in the first link.
As far as removing the bearings, heating them can help. Easiest thing to do is to put them in the oven at 130ish until they're warm, and then press or pull the bearings out while they're still toasty.
Be careful when you remove the bearings that you support them properly so that you don't mangle the linkage. I'm trying to think of an easy way to describe what I mean. The upper linkage is a good example. Imagine that you were to try to press out one of the rear bearings on the upper linkage (Lopes) by pushing on the inner race of one bearing, but you pushed against the opposite outside side of the linkage for leverage. This would be the easiest way to get leverage, but what you'll end up doing is bending the two arms of the link towards eachother and ruining it. Instead, you have to push against the opposite side of the same arm. An easy, low tech way to do this is to get some sockets that are the right size - one should be small enough to push through the hole in the link, but will actually push on the bearing itself, and on the other side you put the open end of a socket with an opening big enough for the whole bearing to go into. The lips of this second socket push against the link itself, around the bearing. Now get a long bolt, thread it through both sockets, put a nut on the end, tighten the whole thing down and voila, the bearing pushes out.
Repeat for all the other bearing. Reinstallation is basically the same thing, but in reverse.
If you look at the fancy bearing presses, they do exactly what I just described above, but they're just a higher quality tool for the same job. The Enduro bearing press is nice. Get one of those and a blind bearing puller and you'll be all set for maintaining wheels, links, and lots of other stuff.
Regarding maintaining bearings without replacing them, here's what you do: Get a dental pick, or carefully use a safety pin, and very carefully poke under the edge of the seal then pry it off. You don't need to, and can't really, disassemble the bearings further than this. Take seals off both sides using the pick, then use whatever serious degreasing solvent you have available and clean all the ook out of the bearing. Get it completely clean and dry, and then squirt it completely full of a good waterproof grease, pop the seals back on, and tada, bearing good to go again.
One other thought. I ended up buying an extra lower and upper link so that I would always have a spare, so no down time if I had to order bearings. When I need to replace bearings, I just throw on the other link, then at my leisure get new bearings and replace them in the first link.
