Homemade Case & Engine Bearing Pullers

Wanted to share my ideas for cheap homemade case & bearing pullers. The case puller shown below was made from some scrap steel that already had 2 large holes cut into it from a previous bumper end-cap job. Just drilled the 3-ignition bolt holes and used a cheapo HF 3-jaw puller with the jaws reversed outward. Worked great!

good idea..

Crank Gear Puller

Here is the crank gear puller I made using another cheap HF universal puller with some homemade jaws fabricated from scrap steel and threaded rod. Required some muscle to get the crank gear to pop off. A conventional 3-jaw puller would not work because there is very little clearance between the back of the gear face and the engine case.

Clutch Shaft Internal Bearing Puller

The third puller was used to remove the clutch shaft right side case bearing that only has access from one side (blind). This puller was also made using a converted HF tool. I used one of the expandable blind bearing puller collets from the puller set. I didn't want to use the supplied slide hammer for fear of damaging the brittle cases. The expandable collet was inserted and tightened inside the bearing ID. A 1.5" OD 6061 aluminum tube was placed over the collet with some hot glue on the bottom to prevent scratching of the case. A welded nut-nut thread adapter was made to convert the theads of the collet to the threaded rod. A milling machine hold down clamp was used against the aluminum tube to extract the bearing. The remaining photos will be added in the post below. Worked very well.

Clutch Shaft Internal Bearing Puller (continued)

More photos.....

/You have some good ideas.. thanks

There is a ring around the clutch bearing which has a habbit of sinking into the case. I have not yet split cases on the 87-88 ones with the six clutch springs which I suspect to have more of this issue. How bad has that sunk into the case on yours? Next one I have apart I think I will bronze sleeve the clutch rod thing the cable turns, new stuff has bearings there and some of the really used stuff is that really used there.

I made my own puller set up as well. I made a ring of quarter inch plate with three tapped holes in it and drilled holes for those thin screws which hold on the seal piece. Havn't broke any thin bolts yet but do use a little air acetylene however often the bearing stays in the case so in that case I don't think the heat did much.

Fran

Where exactly is this ring? There was a washer behind the clutch basket that appears to have been cupped and is pretty worn out. No case damage there though.
As mentioned in another thread, the rear kick starter gear needle bearing had previously failed and gouged the rear of the case in several spots. I believe the kick starter gear needle bearing was riding against the center case and the needle cage got worn down. This let all the needles fall out and allowed the gear to run wild on the shaft. You can see the case damage on the machined face where the kick starter shaft enters the boss on the center case. I am planning on machining this surface flat and making up the distance with a needle bearing thrust washer that will allow the kick starter gear & bearing to spin without wearing on the case. I believe Timken makes a good assortment of flat thrust bearings, but haven't gotten into the design of that yet.

Isn't there a ball beaing the clutch shaft goes through with a ring around the outside of it so that perhaps 60 % of the bearing sits in the case and the ring I am talking about bears against the inside of the case basically what the force of pushing the clutch plates apart bears against? That is what I had in mind.

Upon further disassemble of the engine, I found the bearing & circlip that you are referring to. The clip does indeed bear the clutch actuation load on the inside of the case, but the area was in perfect condition with no wear marks at all.

Crank Puller (Left/Center Case)

Homemade left/center case crankshaft puller constructed from a large washer, steel tube and smaller washer with a nut welded to the underside. The long, fine thread bolt was borrowed from a large Harbor Freight bearing separator. Note the clearance notch milled into the side of the large washer needed to clear the mounting boss located at the front of the engine case.

Crank Puller (Left/Center Case) continued....

A threaded rod and aluminum tube were used to remove the 2 left/center case crank bearings.

Stud Removal Tool

I needed to remove the cylinder studs from the engine cases. The usual double nut method wouldn't work as they just slipped cause the studs were very tight in the cases. I came across a Snap-On collet type stud removal tool, but the set was very expensive. I came up with a way to make my own collet style stud remover tool out of 1/4" npt pipe, a 1/4"npt reducer bushing and a M10x1.50 tap. The inside of the pipe is tapped for the M10x1.50 threads. Then a slot is cut longways along the length of pipe to allow the reducer bushing to squeeze the pipe around the stud threads as it is turned. Thread the tool onto the engine stud till it bottoms, then back off one half turn. Hold the 1/4" pipe end with vise grips while you tighten the bushing very snug. Remove vise grips and continue to turn counterclockwise on the bushing. The studs came out with little effort and the tool worked perfectly. Pipe parts cost me $5 plus the tap. Saved a few hundred dollars over the snapon tool. I also used Kano Kroil to treat the stud threads before removal. This stuff is amazing at loosening impossibly frozen parts.

Stud Removal Tool (Continued)

More pictures.....

I simply put the engine case in the oven when the wife is out and heat to 200 deg C. The bearing will simply drop out under gravity. Make sure you clean off the oil and grease etc or you will stink out the house!

case pullers

wish i could give every hva owner a factory puller set....so much easier and no damage....not so bad taking apart but for 75-82 the "mangle" tool puts the cases back together so easy....still use the old tyrick of bearings in the freezer overnight and cases in the oven for 20 minutes..seals removed of course!

I would be reluctant to pull out a bearing without first heating the case (BTW, they will fall out at about 250 deg).
Wouldn't pulling the bearing cold cause the new bearing to have a loose fit in the case?

Any pictures of the crank assembly tool?

i have the original dealer ones they do work well.

https://www.eurojamb.com/products/husqvarna-crankcase-assembly-tool-as-nos-250-400-430-500-ahrma

I got mine from www.eurojamb.com about 8 years ago. It was money well spent. I got a universal case puller from Phillip and he questioned why I did not buy the Husqvarna puller. I told him I worked on other brands as well as Husqvarna so the universal was the ticket for me. The Husqvarna unit would not have split the cases on my Cota 349 engine for example.