Had another look and I really do not want to damage anything by mistake or brute-force. So I'll take it to the local Yamaha dealer. I did take it to my local bike shop and they said that if they had to take it out they'd weld a bar to the bearing and then knock them out that way.

Had a look at some bearing-pullers and thought that they would not "fit" the wheel to be able to pull up/out the bearings?

Besides the question "how?", what if you where in the middle of, say, China and needed them doing????

I've used an expanding bolt (the type you use in masonry) in the past (not on an XT, though). You put it into the inner race and tighten it up. You can then use a drift through the centre of the hub and hammer out the bearing.

Old screw driver down the spacer beet the crap out of the bearing fit new bearings job dun, no sweat.

I use a small diameter bar like in the images. As stated,push the spacer tube over to one side and get the lip of the bar onto the bearing and whack it. I have my bar hit with a hammer to make a lip,like the top of a chisel. You can heat the hub with boiling water to assist.

The bar has to be thin enough to get from one side of the hub to inside of the bearing at a good angle,something that is hard to do with the likes of a screwdriver.The small burr is enough to get a purchase. Handy enough to put in a bum bag when traveling too.

















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__________________
The Suit:What would you consider to be your greatest weakness?
Me: Honesty.
The Suit: Honesty? I don't think honesty could be construed as a weakness.
Me: I don't give a f**k what you think.

.[IMG] [/IMG]

really.. It is such a easy job...
a hammer & a long punch is the only tools needed
I done my XTR bearing just how described & my boys
Honda CRF150 a few weeks ago aswell as countless
other bikes over the last 30 plus years...

__________________
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The easyest way to turn gasoline into noise with out the side efect of horse power...

Thank you everyone who has given good, useful advice to this novice. In the end I had to take the wheel to the shop and they had everything all out in a jiffy, cost a fiver too.

What I have learnt here is that I never realised that the spacer is so much narrower than the inner hub. It has been an interesting learning curve.

What I did notice mind, was that the bearings had what I'd call "groves" between the inner and outter race. This may have been the bearings pushing into the spacer, to the point that the spacer could not move. The bike shop macanic did "go a little red in the face" while doing it...bless him.

The new bearings are in and all seems well...