Bearing puller

A bearing puller comprising an elongated body member having a plurality of gripping arms at one end thereof with gripping shoulders being provided at the free end of each of the gripping arms. An elongated bolt is threadably mounted in the body member and has one end positioned between the gripping arms. A sleeve is longitudinally slidably mounted on the bolt and is designed to deflect the gripping arms outwardly when moved into a first position and to prevent inward deflection of the gripping arms during the bearing removal process. An actuator slidably embraces the body member and is operatively connected to the sleeve to enable the sleeve means to be selectively positoned. In a modified form of the invention, the bolt member is not utilized but is replaced by a slide hammer operatively attached to the body member.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to a puller device and more particularly to a device 
for pulling or extracting annular members, such as pilot bearings, 
bearings, etc. from the members in which they are mounted. 
Many types of pulling devices such as bearing pullers have been previously 
provided. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,052,304; 3,964,149; and 
1,131,868. All of the prior art devices suffer the same shortcoming in 
that there is no adequate structure for positively maintaining the 
work-engaging portions, shoulders or lugs with the member being pulled. 
Further, those prior art devices which employ a shaft engaging bolt are 
less than satisfactory since the rotation of the bolt tends to cause the 
bolt to be laterally displaced with respect to the shaft as the bolt is 
being rotated to apply pulling pressures to the work-engaging surfaces. 
It is therefore a principal object of the invention to provide an improved 
pulling device. 
A further object of the invention is to provide a pulling device for 
pulling annular members such as bearings or the like from their supporting 
members. 
Still another object of the invention is to provide a device of the type 
described which includes a plurality of work-engaging members with means 
being provided to maintain the work-engaging members in positive 
engagement with the member being pulled. 
Still another object of the invention is to provide a device of the type 
described including means on the end of the bolt associated therewith for 
preventing displacement of the bolt as the bolt is being rotated to pull 
the annular member from its supporting member. 
Still another object of the invention is to provide a device of the type 
described which is easy to use. 
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a device of the type 
described which is economical of manufacture, durable in use and refined 
in appearance. 
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The pulling device or puller of this invention is designed to pull or 
remove annular members such as bearings or the like from supporting 
members such as flywheels, etc. without the necessity of removing the 
flywheel, etc. from the vehicle or the like. In the preferred embodiment, 
an elongated body member is provided which includes a plurality of 
work-engaging fingers or arms which are adapted to be inserted through the 
annular opening in the bearing. The free ends of the work-engaging arms 
are provided with gripping teeth extending outwardly therefrom which are 
adapted to be positioned on the back side of the bearing. A bolt member is 
threadably mounted in the body member and is adapted to have one end 
thereof engage the crankshaft or the like so that rotation of the bolt 
will cause the body member to pull the bearing from its supporting member. 
A sleeve is positioned between the bolt member and the inner surfaces of 
the arms to prevent the arms from being deflected inwardly as the bearing 
is being pulled. An actuator is connected to the sleeve to enable the 
sleeve to be selectively positioned. One end of the bolt member is 
provided with a rotatable member provided thereon to prevent displacement 
of the bolt member with respect to the crankshaft or the like as the bolt 
member is being rotated. In a modified form of the invention, the pulling 
force is achieved through the use of a slide hammer assembly operatively 
connected to the body member. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The preferred pulling device or puller of this invention is referred to by 
the reference numeral 10 while the reference numeral 12 refers to an 
embodiment which is illustrated in FIG. 7. The numeral 14 refers to a 
flywheel or the like having a pilot bearing 16 mounted therein. Bearing 16 
is conventionally of the ball bearing type but is merely shown 
schematically in the drawings. For purposes of description, the numeral 17 
refers to one end of a crankshaft of the engine with which the flywheel 14 
is utilized. Although the drawings do not so indicate, it should be 
understood that the crankshaft 17 is secured to the flywheel 14 in 
conventional fashion. Pilot bearing 16 includes a central or annular 
opening 18 formed therein. 
The puller 10 of this invention is designed to permit the removal of the 
pilot bearing 16 from the flywheel 14 without the necessity of removing 
the flywheel 14 from the vehicle. Although the device is particularly 
well-suited for removing the pilot bearing 16 from the flywheel 14, it 
should be understood that the tool has application for removing any 
annular member from its supporting member. 
Puller 10 includes an elongated body member 20 having ends 22 and 24. End 
22 of body member 20 is provided with an internally threaded opening 26 
formed therein which is adapted to threadably receive bolt 28. As seen in 
FIG. 3, one end of bolt 28 is provided with an unthreaded portion 30 
having an annular groove 32 formed therein which receives an O-ring 34. 
O-ring 34 is preferably comprised of a suitable rubber, Neoprene or other 
type of material. The end of bolt 28 is provided with a semi-circular 
recess 36 adapted to receive ball 38. A cup-shaped member 40 embraces ball 
38, O-ring 34 and the end of bolt member 28 as best seen in FIG. 4. The 
frictional engagement between O-ring 34 and cup member 40 yieldably 
maintains the member 40 on bolt 28 while permitting rotation of bolt 
member 28 with respect to member 40. An air hole 42 in the side of 
cup-shaped member 40 allows air to be vented when cup-shaped member 40 is 
pushed onto the end of bolt member 28. It should be noted that member 40 
is mounted on bolt 28 after bolt 28 has been sufficiently threaded through 
body member 20 to expose the end of the bolt 28. 
Body member 20 includes a plurality of spaced-apart gripping arms 46 having 
outwardly or radially extending gripping teeth or portions 48 provided 
thereon. Each of the shoulders 48 includes a tapered surface 50 and a 
shoulder portion 52. 
Gripping arms 46 further include an inwardly projecting boss 53 at the ends 
thereof. Each boss 53 extends longitudinally a short distance, and ends at 
an inner deflecting shoulder 53'. Thus, the interior diameter of body 
portion 20 is smaller at the end of gripping arms 46, than at a location 
intermediate the length of gripping arms 46. 
Sleeve 54 is positioned within body member 20 and has a central opening 56 
through which the bolt 28 extends. A plurality of lugs or fingers 58 are 
connected to the sleeve 54 and extend through the openings 60 between the 
arms 46 and are secured to actuator 62 which slidably embraces body member 
20. Actuator 62 permits the sleeve 54 to be slidably moved from the 
position of FIG. 4 to the position of FIG. 6 as will be described in more 
detail hereinafter. The gripping arms 46 are constructed of a suitable 
steel material which permits their deflection from the position 
illustrated by solid lines in FIG. 4 to the position illustrated by broken 
lines in FIG. 4 to permit the gripping arms to be inserted through the 
central opening 18 in the bearing 16. 
In operation, the bolt 28 is initially in the position relative to body 
member 20 as seen in FIG. 4 with the actuator 62 and the sleeve 54 being 
in the position also illustrated in FIG. 4. The tapered surfaces 50 of the 
teeth 48 are positioned adjacent the bearing 16 with inward longitudinal 
force then being applied to the puller 10 to cause the gripping arms 46 to 
be deflected inwardly to the position illustrated by broken lines in FIG. 
4 so that the ends of the gripping arms 46 are extended through the 
opening 18 of the bearing 16 until the position of FIG. 5 is achieved at 
which time the resiliency of the gripping arms 46 causes the teeth 48 to 
position themselves with respect to the bearing 16 so that the shoulders 
52 are positioned adjacent the bearing 16 as illustrated in FIG. 5. 
Actuator 62 is then moved from the position illustrated by solid lines in 
FIG. 5 to the position illustrated by broken lines in FIG. 5 which causes 
the sleeve 54 to also be moved from the position illustrated by solid 
lines in FIG. 5 to the position illustrated by broken lines in FIG. 5. As 
sleeve 54 is moved to the position of FIG. 5, it deflects bosses 53 and 
moves the ends of the arms 46 slightly outwardly so that the outer 
surfaces of the arms 46 are closely positioned adjacent the inside 
diameter of the bearing 16 and to ensure that substantially all of the 
shoulders 52 will be in engagement with the bearing. When the sleeve 54 is 
in the position illustrated by broken lines in FIG. 5 and by the solid 
lines in FIG. 6, the gripping arms 46 are prevented from inward deflection 
thereby ensuring that the gripping teeth 48 will remain in positive 
engagement with the bearing 16 to ensure that slippage will not occur. 
With the gripping teeth positioned as illustrated in FIG. 5, a wrench is 
positioned on the wrench receiving portion 61 and a wrench is positioned 
on the head of bolt 28 as seen in FIG. 1. Bolt 28 is then rotated until 
the member 40 moves into contact with the end of the crankshaft 17. 
Continued threadable rotational movement of the bolt 28 causes the bearing 
16 to be pulled from flywheel 14 as illustrated in FIG. 6. It is important 
to note that the bolt 28 is rotated with respect to the member 40 during 
the pulling operation. Member 40 does not rotate with respect to the 
crankshaft 17 during the pulling operation. If the member 40 were 
permitted to rotate with respect to the crankshaft 17, the inner end of 
the bolt 28 could be laterally displaced which could affect the pulling 
operation. 
Once the bearing 16 has been removed from the flywheel 14, the actuator 62 
is again moved to the position illustrated in FIG. 5 so that the gripping 
arms 46 may be deflected inwardly to permit the bearing 16 to be removed 
from the device 10. 
The embodiment of FIG. 7 functions in substantially the same way as that in 
FIGS. 1-6 except that the bolt 28 has been eliminated. In place of bolt 
28, a conventional slide hammer assembly 70 is attached to the body member 
20 by threadably inserting one end of the slide hammer assembly bolt 72 
into the threaded opening 26. 
Thus it can be seen that the invention accomplishes at least all of its 
stated objectives.