jscott82

So I'm replacing the bearings in the Cayman. I planned to repack them with a better grease (neo), but having trouble driving out the center race.

Any advice on how to disassemble these? Or am looking for a solution in need of a problem?

Thanks in advance.

badabing

There are a few YouTube videos on how to do this on Boxster bearings. There is also a thread from last year discussing same.

What I have gathered is that the Cayman bearing is different. I just went through this and even tried dissecting an old bearing. I'm not sure why they don't come apart the same but they just don't.

I ended up just removing the grease seals on the new bearings and flushing out the old (original) grease as thoroughly as possible using brake cleaner and compressed air.

I then used a grease gun with a needle size fitting to inject redline cv-2 high temp red grease all throughout the bearing. Then I reinstalled the grease seals.

I haven't installed the bearings in the car yet - FYI

jscott82

Thanks !
Now that I know I'm not alone, I ran the old bearing through the parts washer to get a better look. I now see the problem.

The cage clips to the race. I don't see any way to disengage these once the bearing is together, but there must be some magic trick out there.. The old bearing does not seem to have a lip on the outside race for the clips to engage like the new one does, it just slips in and out.

[edited for clarity]

coryf

IMO there is no need to repack new bearings. Stock is all we ever use in all our cars. Trying to take them apart will just be a potential cause of premature failure. Stock bearings live for several seasons in 996/997 cup which uses the same/similiar bearing as a cayman.

jscott82

Thanks Cory, that what I was thinking..

If it was as simple as pop the bearing apart and swipe in some new grease, I figured it was cheap insurance..

If it's not that easy, I'll leave it alone. If it's good enough for you it's good enough for me

jdistefa

As you have discovered, Cayman wheel bearings are not Boxster wheel bearings.

Best to simply replace them every 2 years.

dgm8138

I managed to take apart 1 cayman bearing without breaking the cage. My other two attempts were not so successful.

So I rigged up a vacuum packing tool for my bearings. I dissolved all of the original grease. And then forced the new high temp grease through the bearing with pressure.

badabing

Care to share any details on the tool?

dgm8138

Sure. I'll get a picture the next chance I get. It's nothing fancy.

Brief description:
1. I emptied some of the high temp. grease into a container and partially submerged an already cleaned bearing w/the grease seals removed.
2. I then connected a vacuum tester to a container that fit around the outside diameter of the exposed portion of the bearing (I was lucky and able to make the container seal with a spare o-ring gasket I already had)
3. Using the vacuum tester, the pressure difference between the grease exposed to the atmosphere and inside the container connected to the vacuum tester pressed grease through the bearing and into the container connected to the vacuum tester.

It would be very easy to improve upon this design. I just made it out of a few things lying around the shop.