I was getting ready to assembly my rear suspension and noticed the bearings are in fair to poor condition. Does anyone have a source for new bearings and know the easiest way to remove the old ones?

Hi Bob,

The bearings are common 40mm and 45mm inside diameter deep groove ball bearings with seals on both sides. They are available from any industrial bearing supply company. The bearing numbers are 62208-2RS and 62209-2RS.

I had a terrible time getting the axles out of the bearings/uprights as they were frozen to the bearings. They were also frozen to the internal spacer between the bearings which is also a press fit onto the axle.

Much of the problem was that I was afraid to hold the upright in a way that places it in bending when pressing against the axle. This lead to fabricating a special fixture that grabbed (just barely) the upright in an area behind the axle flange and close to the bearings.

When pressing on the end of the axle, there is a very good chance that the first thread on the end of the axle might distort. Be sure and use a stepped plug in the end of the axle to press against.

My strong recommendation would be to have one of the Pantera vendors replace the bearings as it was a real PITA.

Once the bearings were out, I was aghast at the horrid machining of the bearing seating surfaces in the upright. The surfaces were lapped flat using an aluminum plug with a disk of 200 and then 400 grit sand paper bonded to the end of the plug. It worked beautifully and it was easy to do. If you want to borrow this plug, I'll be happy to send it to you.

Any questions .... call me. (714) 963-8088 PST

Dick Chandler

Thanks,
I am taking you advise and letting Wilkinson do it.

Wanted to add my experience for anyone wrestling with hubs on their own. When reassembing a set several years ago, I assumed the spacers were the same dimension and that they were interchageble. That proved not to be the case.....if you choose wrong (50/50 chance) and don't have matching dimensions on both sides, you get one spacer that rattles slightly between the bearings, and on the other hub, at least one beearing that does not seat 100% properly in the hub.

The next time I messed with this I had diferent set of hubs (from 1056) and measured everything carefully. Turned out the L anf R spacers differed by about 0.003" in length. The L and R hubs were machined with a corresponding difference. Hubs are hard to measure directly so I used a series of go/no go gauges to determine size.

Lesson learned was don't mix these parts up and you should be OK! Regards to all, Nate

That is excellent advice, thank you.