The art of removing cone washers.

[frank rabbets]

1. Undo the nuts and remove the washers.
2. Using a flat punch and hammer hit the cone at right angles to the stud. They ping right off easily.

It's no use hitting the stud, that just grips them harder.
It's no use hitting the flange outwards, that has the same effect.
It's no use hitting the flange at right angles as it is dowelled to the hub and won't move.

Frank

 

[Chris]

That's probably one of the only methods I haven't tried Frank. But I have to say I have never struggled to them out. I do hit the side of the flange and it works every time for me so not sure i agree that it's no use hitting them, but I do like the idea of hitting the cone itself. I shall try that next time.

 

[Ben]

Tapping each stud as per the FSM using a brass punch/copper hammer works fine for me.

 

[Chris]

I've not had any success with that one Ben. I'm not sure I am doing it right. Is there a trick to it. I get the idea of how it supposed to work. But generally I get to the point where I don't want to hit it any harder, but they still haven't popped.

I do find then when tapping the flange (ooer) once one has gone, the others seem to go in quick succession. I tap a few times and it it doesn't pop, I move on and so on until one does. I never just whack away regardless.

Oh I use a nice copper faced mallet too

 

[ModelMakerMan]

I do the FSM process too. I find it works better with an alu\brass bar on the end of the stud as it concentrates the shock loading down the stud better also if you put the nuts back on but only wind them on so the end of the stud is flush with the surface of the nut it gives you a larger area to hit and seems to increase the shock force. Never had any problems with this way.

 

[Chris]

One further tip is to make sure you clean the slot in the cone before you put it back. If that is solid with crud they don't ping as easily.

 

[IRLGW]

Ummm dudes it's much easier - just grab lightly with the vice grips and twist and pull......

 

[Chris]

Hmm, not always and with the regularity that I take mine out, I'd rather not maul them. Sometimes they do ping but they won't come off the stud. So I admit the pliers do come out occasionally.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

something must be wrong with them if a squeeze with vice grips removes them? They're supposed to clamp the stud so any further compression force should just clamp them even tighter not release them. Never tried it so I am only going on how I think it should be. I hit the flange with large copper faced hammer and work my way round to shock them out and they come off easily enough. I did try the brass drift on the end of the studs method first but soon gave up on that when studs started bending. Drifting the stud/nut combo broke some of the end threads after a few goes like that.

 

[frank rabbets]

The cones are spring steel so quite difficult to damage, dent or distort. Jemca, Croydon used a chisel between the hub mating faces before I took delivery of my 100. I tried to get the front wheels off but could not because as they would not fit the hubs anymore Jemca had forced the wheels on with the wheel nuts. Call themselves technicians, well if so you don't need any IQ to qualify.

Frank

 

[Chris]

Frank, I have to admit that I had never seen a cone washer like this until I got an 80. It doesn't surprise me that it foxes people and they start wailing on them with a BFH. I notice that Landrovers don't have these. QED.