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Trying to replace the bearings and I can not get the end caps off. They spin ok and even have a tiny wobble so I don't think they're seized. They don't have spanner flats or a little spin on lockring or anything. Everything I can find online suggests they should just pull out. I tried they chat feature on Hunt's website and the very helpful Hunt person said I could try using the through axle to give them a little lever and then they should pop out. Does that sound ok? I don't want to damage the caps....
yeah they are a pain - two feet and a pair of monkey grips worked for me.
Front or rear? Front just pull out, rear ones unscrew using a narrow spanner on the small flat bits (one on each side)
Might be a silly question, but have you taken the rotor off? The one on the rotor side will definitely not come off with the rotor fitted.
Front hub, rotors off, not sure I want to go too brutal in case I bust the caps...
Could you use a small wooden dowel (or flat-bladed screwdriver with plenty of tape over the tip) pushed through from the other side to tap them out?
I am not sure if there is a lip to tap against once the end cap is inserted.
Have the same problem on my no-name front hub. I've heard that you can just use the same bearing puller you're going to use for the bearings.....
Is that true - good to hear what folks think.
No lip internally sadly. I have just tried the "axle leverage" technique and no joy. The end caps move around quite freely with even a little in and out movement too, they just feel like they're caught on something. I can best describe the feel as mechanical rather than frictional.
If I could get one out I might be able to drift the other side but there's no sense that either of them are going to give.
I'm going homemade bearing press, so was just going to drift the old bearings out...
It all looks so easy:
For the pull-off type (make sure you double check first!) this is a really useful piece of kit - stick 'em in the vice, clamp the end caps in them (they are soft-jaw and because they fit snuggly, don't mark the end-caps), and then bash both sides of the rim upwards at the same time. The wheel should pop free, and leave the end-cap in the jaws.
Highly recommended - in fact, mine are so useful they just live in the vice all of the time and occasionally get removed if I need to do something that needs a bit more grunt.
I gave up. It's gone in to my LBS this morning.
Those blind hole bearing pullers would be good for this. But if you don't want to shell out for them you can get various sized concrete expansion bolts from most hardware places that do a simillar thing i.e. lock themselves inside the bore and then can be drifted out from the other side.
Newmen do a neat end cap too - clamps on the end cap by tightening a bolt - then just pop an allen key through the axle, tap of a mallet, and the cap is off
https://www.bike-discount.de/en/newmen-endcap-tool-2
