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Dealing with deep seated snap rings - tooling ideas

treemuncher

Senior Member
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Dec 31, 2006
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733
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eatin' trees, poopin' chips
I just finished disassembly of a bearing carrier unit today. One of two that I am rebuilding on an FAE cutter head. One side had a bearing going down so everything will be rebuilt at once, including the 2 main rotor bearings. This repair requires the removal of the hydraulic motors (meaning drain the hydraulic system, again) so I might as well get everything done in one shot. At the end of the day, it's all apart but how to do it was a learning experience. Maybe I can pass on a trick or two to others in the same predicament sometime in the future.
disassembled fae bearing carrier.jpg

After getting the bearing carrier housing out, it took a little research to see how this unit came apart. The outer snap ring under the outer seal was a no-brainer but the inner snap ring holding down the inner bearing was not evident on the parts break down and it was deep in grease. It was only after scooping out the grease and poking around with a screwdriver that I finally found the hidden ring that was keeping me from pressing the unit apart. Ok, I found the ring, it's about 4-5 inches deep in a narrow cavity and it's a very stout 5/32" x 4-3/8" ring. Most snap ring pliers won't reach that deep and those that can have an interference fit with the screw or other components. Now what? You can just barely see the snap ring near the tip of the screwdriver.

deep snap ring.jpg

So I have 5/8" wide circular gap that is about 4"-5" deep to get to the snap ring. One old skinny pair of SR pliers touches but won't hold the ring down long enough to get a screwdriver or hook into the gap. Even my neighbor, a retired HE mechanic, did not have anything in his wide variety of SR pliers to access this ring. Time to think and make a tool. I need to get this done.

5/8" x 5" bolt fits snugly within the gap. Get a cup of cooling water and turn on the bench grinder. I'm going to turn a cam type pin out of this bolt to twist the end of the snap ring so that I can get a hook under it when it's twisted out. I make sure not to blue the steel of the bolt by cooling it after every few seconds of grinding. This will be a tool that I will save. I've already got one of the snap rings out from the outer end so I had an easy method of sizing my ground pin dimensions.

snap ring tool with ring.jpg

The finished tool:
modified bolt for snap rings.jpg

While it may not be perfect, it was perfectly suited to allow me to get a couple of heavy duty pick/hooks under the released end to finally work out the snap ring. Rather than weld on a T handle, I just used a 15/16 wrench to twist the tool while forcing the pick under the released end. Not the easiest way to pull the SR but it got the job done.
 

treemuncher

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2006
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West TN
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eatin' trees, poopin' chips
When putting it back together, I will use my favorite SR tool. If you deal with large SR's, you NEED one of these threaded tools. The best thing going as long as they fit down into the snap ring.

As pictured here holding onto the small ring inside of the carrier unit.
screw type snap ring pliers.jpg
 

treemuncher

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Dec 31, 2006
Messages
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Location
West TN
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eatin' trees, poopin' chips
Yes very ingenious ! I suppose one could always drill the end of the bolt and install a roll pin or a hardened dowel ?

I thought about chucking the bolt up on the lathe with the 4 jaw so I could cut the offset or drilling & pinning, but sometimes quick & dirty is better/faster. Having the other snap ring out to size the pin was the most helpful. The remaining "pin" did not bend or flex at all from what I saw. It's a grade 5 bolt and it was sufficiently hard enough for this use. I actually cut a second tool but having 2 in the slot at a time was no better for getting the hook under to start lifting the SR out.
 

Tones

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Ubique
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Ex land clearing contractor, part-time retired
Well done treemuncher. When stripping these to replace the bearings check the condition of the spline. Worn bearings cause the spline to wear. See if there's a weld on the shaft about 2 1/2" in from the end. If so then that is a fittment that can be purchased so there's no need to buy a new shaft. Simply put the shaft in a lathe and cut the weld and the end section will slide off. Don't cut to the centre as there is a male spline on the shaft that fitments slides onto. A way of verifying what I've written measure the outside to the weld and the inside to the shaft. I found this out on an AHWI mulcher so probably not dissimilar to the FAE.
 

51cub

Active Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
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40
Location
Canaan NH
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semi retired
Very nice. You make it look easy. The front hubs on F Series used to make me nuts until I found snap ring pliers that would reach them
 

Truck Shop

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Dec 7, 2015
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16,531
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WWW.
Yes very ingenious ! I suppose one could always drill the end of the bolt and install a roll pin or a hardened dowel ?

A friend that use to build/manufacture pea and bean harvesters made a tool just like that with your
same thought for removing a deep seated snap ring in a component that ran the sheller/concave.
Only it has a cam type sleeve that fit's over the shaft to keep it from walking to the side. He still
supplies them to people who have his harvesters.
 

treemuncher

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2006
Messages
733
Location
West TN
Occupation
eatin' trees, poopin' chips
Well done treemuncher. When stripping these to replace the bearings check the condition of the spline. Worn bearings cause the spline to wear. See if there's a weld on the shaft about 2 1/2" in from the end. If so then that is a fittment that can be purchased so there's no need to buy a new shaft. Simply put the shaft in a lathe and cut the weld and the end section will slide off. Don't cut to the centre as there is a male spline on the shaft that fitments slides onto. A way of verifying what I've written measure the outside to the weld and the inside to the shaft. I found this out on an AHWI mulcher so probably not dissimilar to the FAE.

I'm pretty sure that I caught it in time before there was noticeable wear on the splines. Lots of others would just have let it run longer with just a little slop but I would rather take it out of service before it gets worse and replace everything at the shop instead of in the field. Right drive sprocket may have had 1/8"-1/4" slop at the end of the shaft - enough to get my attention.

Unless a previous owner changed out these bearings, then they have about 4k hours on them. I've never had a cutter head keep bearings this long and they have more than paid for themselves. Rotor bearings have a slight amount of slop too so the head will get all new bearings, 6 in total.

I got the 2 rotor bearings out today and the right side carrier unit. Like a dumbass, I forgot that the rotor shafts on the FAE have a 1/8" pipe thread for a grease fitting to hydraulically drive off the bearing from the stub shaft. Maybe I'll reference this post to remind me how to do it next time rather than heating the inner race to release the grip on the shaft. They still came off without incident using the wrong method.

Lots of leftover grease. I'm going to post another thread for ideas on repurposing this stuff. Maybe someone else has better ideas than mine.
 
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