Removing the double race in the banjo...help

[garyaodell]

I cut the race with a peanut grinder and a narrow cut off wheel, then drove it out from inside with a drift. My race was stopped on the inside of the banjo housing, there was no way I could of driven to the inside.

[Tom Endy]

This is the tool I use. I cut off the pinion gear end of a trashed drive shaft with the pinion gear and rear bearing still installed. I had a hole bored through a thick piece of steel slightly smaller than the drive shaft and sawed it in half after drilling four holes in it. This is the important part of the tool. Once the block is clamped around the cut off drive shaft stub with the four bolts it will not budge. The two, big steel plates are used as a pusher. One is placed against the torque tube flange, the other has holes drilled and threaded for large bolts that do the pushing against the block of steel. The tool will easily remove a stubborn double race from a banjo. If you lived near by I would invite you to stop by and I could probably have it out in about ten minutes.

I would advise against trying to push it out from the inside. You can easily distort the banjo doing that. A number of the early how to books suggest using a small bottle jack on the inside.

Tom Endy

[Joe K]

Originally Posted by Tom Endy

This is the tool I use. I cut off the pinion gear end of a trashed drive shaft with the pinion gear and rear bearing still installed. I had a hole bored through a thick piece of steel slightly smaller than the drive shaft and sawed it in half after drilling four holes in it. This is the important part of the tool. Once the block is clamped around the cut off drive shaft stub with the four bolts it will not budge. The two, big steel plates are used as a pusher. One is placed against the torque tube flange, the other has holes drilled and threaded for large bolts that do the pushing against the block of steel. The tool will easily remove a stubborn double race from a banjo. If you lived near by I would invite you to stop by and I could probably have it out in about ten minutes.

I would advise against trying to push it out from the inside. You can easily distort the banjo doing that. A number of the early how to books suggest using a small bottle jack on the inside.

Tom Endy

I like very much Tom's rig - very much as I proposed using a hollow powerpac cylinder (which I don't own). The only critique I could make is that the pinion/bearing will act as a "wedge" and may pin the bearing in the housing.

Instead catch the "lip" of the cone and pull out directly.

Joe K