I have a knuckle with pressed in bearings and the mating surface has light rust (the old bearing was a PITA to remove). What's the best way to remove this contamination before I press in the new bearing? I don't want to damage the surface but I do need to get the rust out of there.

Usually these pressed surfaces have been spotless for me so they just needed a good wipe-down. This is the first time I have had contamination (probably the original bearing with 120k miles on them, just old I guess).

I heard that using oiled 00 steel wool works, other people use a rotating brass wire brush. Thoughts?

 

I tried some 00 steel wool which helped but there is some left. Does this look clean enough for the new bearing to be pressed in?



I wonder if this will continue to rust and stick again the next time I do this. I will grease it but the rust is already there. I'm having an ever harder time with the bearing on the other side so it may be even more rusted.

I could be wrong but I don't think a brass brush could get it cleaner... maybe

 

Isn't there going to be a race installed in there between that surface and the bearing? I've used emery cloth before to clean up similar surfaces with a little rust. I don't see/have any issues using emery cloth to clean it up some, as long as there will be a race installed. And yeah, I would use a very small amount of some good synthetic grease when you install the race/bearing, then use more afterwards.

 

Yeah, when I say "bearing" I mean one of these newfangled sealed bearing units with the race built into it. The race/bearing is pressed in to this knuckle then the spindle/hub is pressed into the bearing. I hate this design more than anything.

 

Dont worry about it. That is MORE than clean enough to put a sealed bearing in