I have the tool and used it to pull the old bearings and it worked fine. I installed one of the new bearings. The directions say to line the bearing up with the hole and "lightly tap" the rod to seat the bearing. I started tapping with a rubber mallet and the bearing was reluctant at first but eventually I got it started. The last little bit however required a little more force to the tapping, to the point that I traded my mallet for a hammer. I still just "tapped" it, but it made me a little nervous. The bearing is in the bore and turns freely so I guess all is well. Just curious if others had similar experiences. I did lube the bearing with oil beforehand. I also put the other bearing in the freezer overnight so we'll see if that makes a difference today.

 

I use a dead blow sometimes but usually use a brass hammer. Rubber mallet wouldn't work too good IMO. I'm sure everything is fine but you do need to put the letter side of the bearings facing outward or toward you.

 

Yup. Letters out. Got that part.

 

You should be good. With a brass hammer, you can hear when the bearing is all the way in. The sound of your tapping will get higher pitched and more solid sounding when the bearing is all the way in.

 

Rubber hammers and even solid hammers can bounce on impact.
I use a deadblow at work,it has hard plastic faces.

 

I just used regular hammer you can tell when it bottoms out