Replacing sealed/cartridge bearings

[chris French]

We've a wooden balance bike (the pedal-less scoot along things) that came from Lidl about 6 years ago. Kids have now outgrown it, and it's ready to pass onto someone else.

But the bearings in one wheel have seized up. The wheels are plastic, with cartridge/sealed bearings (not sure what they are normally called), which have siezed up.

I assume that the bearings are a standard size that I can get from Ebay or somewhere. How easy/practical is it to get the axle and old bearings out and new ones in?

[newshound]

I think you'll be lucky. Could be plain bearings (plastic on metal axle). Might be easiest to replace the wheel with something salvaged from a scrapped bike.

[chris French]

In message , newshound writes

Well, I'm not going to check right now (it's outside in a dark stable), but I'm 95% certain they were proper bearings - certainly isn't just a plastic/metal plain bearing. I'll have another shufty

Hmm, probably not. The bike is wooden framed, the wheels aren't fixed in a standard way.

It's like this:

[Tabby]

ance bike (the pedal-less scoot along things) that came

You can get bearings from stockists, take the bike so they can determine exactly whats wanted, but you still have to part the existing bits. I cant imagine an item like that being worth the work. If it has bearings anyway, quite likely not to.

NT

[robgraham]

On the basis that it would appear that the wheels can come off to change the height of the bike, it should then just be a press-out job (NOT an angle grinder, before anyone else says it!). That does of course depend on what workshop facilities you have. I think in this case I would rig something up using a hydraulic car jack.

You're right enough about common bearing sizes - I've recently had to do some repair work on an electric motor (common washing machine bearing), and a bandsaw (roller skate bearings - 25p each on Ebay)

What a great toy, by the way, I'll look out for one of those for my wee grand daughter.

Rob

[newshound]

Yes they *might* be; alternatively the wheels may have been moulded on to a ribbed cartridge unit.

[F Murtz]

Make one yourself (you can buy wheels like this fairly easily)