Modern Vespa

2005 GTS 250 horrible noise from the back end. After removing the CVT cover and finding no obvious culprit I whipped the exhaust off to get to the swing arm. When I found that the bearing was shot I was quite pleased that it wasn’t a more internal issue.

However, I was left with a swing arm with a jammed in outer bearing race. So how to remove it? I don’t have a blind bearing removal tool but there was no gap to get behind the bearing. I tried drifting the bearing out after heating the swing arm but the only purchase was oblique and ineffective.

Back to some internet research.
I found info about dremmeling the bearing, welding a slide hammer to it. Etc etc.

I expected collateral damage due to my inept dremmel use and I don’t have a welder. So I decided to use toilet paper.

Yup, toilet paper.

I managed to get 5 of the ball bearings back into the bearing and the packed wet toilet paper between the equally spaced balls. The balls in the packed race held the inner race secure. I then heated the swing arm and placed a socket on top and whacked it with a hammer. Hey presto bearing popped right out.

I hope this helps anyone in the same position. [/img]

Here is a recent thread about this very thing:

Rear swingarm bearing - haven't tried it before...

Well done and thanks for posting. It's important to hear everyone's method to deal with this issue. You got the job done and saved a ton of money!

I will mention and you may already know this (but others may not) but if it didn't come out of the swing arm housing the first time you didn't get it hot enough, and importantly, fast enough. You want the alloy housing to expand quickly around the bearing without the bearing taking on too much heat. Although the hardened steel of the bearing does take longer to expand anyway it helps to expand the housing very quickly. In the workshop we never use force or pullers of any kind to do those or any of the gearbox bearings. They literally just drop out if heated enough or only need a gloved finger to extract it. A heat gun is safest rather than a flame but a flame is ok if used with great care to avoid damage.