Rear Bearing Puller/Press Tool Loaner Program
 

So, I've gone back and forth on whether to do this with the rear bearing puller/press tool I have, but having mailed this off have across the country I guess I've pretty much made up my mind. With the age of these rigs pushing into the "classic car" range now, replacing the rear bearings and seals is only become more common. I hope this makes this maintenance job less expensive for those needing it done and keeps more 3rd Gens on the road.

What it is: I'm offering up my bearing puller/press tool as a loaner to the community.

What you need to know: Please review @mtbtim and @infamousRNR 's video for replacing your rear bearings and seals to get up to speed on how to use this tool. This tool is the one featured in their most recent follow up video and NOT the Durasolid tool. This tool is much easier to use, but it still requires you to have access to a press. If you have a Harbor Freight near you, make sure to check out Harbor Freight Tools Coupon Database - Free coupons, 25 percent off coupons, 20 percent off coupons, No Purchase Required coupons, toolbox coupons to find a coupon for their 20 ton press.

What it'll cost you: I'm offering this up on a "pay it forward" plan. I'm hoping that the community here will help keep people honest. So, it'll basically cost you shipping to the next person in line to need the tool. To make this cheap for everyone, it'll have to be kept in the continental US (lower 48), which currently cost $14.35 when shipped via a medium flat rate box from USPS.

What's required of you: Post your request for use here and I'll add you to the queue I'll be keeping on a Google Spreadsheet. PM me your information and I'll get that over to the current user whom has the tool. If you have the tool and someone needs it, please try to get it to them as fast as you can. If someone makes a request here while you have it, please try to get your job done and then ship it off to them in a timely manner. From my time on the forum here it has always impressed me with the caliber of individuals who post and share here, so don't disabuse everyone here of that.

Happy Wrenching

Example pics:

https://i.imgur.com/UflC3CT.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/aO8qM1M.jpg

good on ya. im sure you will help a lot of people.

everyone, dont F this up. :)

As much as I want this to work, inevitably someone will screw things up for everyone. I know that's not very optimistic, but it is what it is. I commend you for starting something like this though and I hope it works. Luckily, for me, I never have to worry about needing one of these :D

maybe the OP should impose some sort of 2-3 week 'deadline' for this tool? maybe a requirement such as already having a press would likely help as well.

i understand everyone is busy, but when you have someone like this who is willing to loan this tool out as a huge help to the community, you need to make this a priority. see also my partial post from post #2:

This is a great idea, thanks @weekendclimber for being generous with this community. If there was any forum where this could work it would be this one!

One idea to help keep folks honest and timely with sharing the tool is to post up on this thread about who currently has it so it is public knowledge.

You could have the user post a paypal deposit then refund it when he sends it on its way.
Even better each user should chip in to defer the cost of the original buyer.
At least send him some beer.

@JZiggy , you've been generous to me so I give you some credit for the good will on here. As you mentioned, I've asked the person who currently has it to post up when he has a chance.

I'm not here to make money on this, but the paypal deposit is an interesting thought. Let's see how this goes.

I hope you're wrong, but this was some of why I hesitated.

^^^What he said.

I'm the current keep of the tool lol I should be done with it in a couple weeks if all goes as planned. I'll post up here again when it's available if no one has requested it next. A huge thank you to weekendclimber for loaning me this tool and saving me lots of money and time!

Could set a minimum number of posts or Join Date cutoff so you don't get a freeloader looking to score. So if someone with next to no posts or just joined the forum has to participate in the forum community before receiving it.

This is a good idea, along with the paypal refundable deposit.

This.

Hey Scott, I have to say you're a better man than me. I've had bad experiences when lending things out so I've had a policy for a long time to not do it. With that said, I do occasionally lend out things to trusted friends but I'd rather not. Shit happens, people do stupid things and things get messed up or broken. Then you're left with asking you're friend or a total stranger for compensation and I'd rather not have to do that.

Duane, who makes the axle tool, sent me a picture of one of his tools that was destroyed. The guy forgot to remove the snap ring above the outer retainer. When he went to drive the axle out of the bearing, the snap ring held firm and he bent the shit out of the tool. I'm willing to help out total strangers by inviting them over my place to make a video but I know I wouldn't ship my tools to them and hope I get them back in good shape and not broken.

I do think the PayPal deposit is a great idea if you do go through with this. This way they are motivated to treat the tool with care and send it back to you or the next guy.

I totally agree with this. I like helping people that are contributors and generous. People that just take and don't pay it forward are not the type of people I like to engage with. The people I like to surround myself with are guys like @infamousRNR , @JZiggy and a host of others that like to help people out. The world is a better place with people that are willing to take the time to do some good for others.

On a similar subject, I've had people contact me when we have a Mod Day Party at my place asking if they can get some work done on their rig at the party. I tell them we can help with knowledge and tools but they have to take the lead on their own job or bring somebody that will take the lead. When they hear this, 9 times out of 10 they decide not to show up. They were thinking that Sean and I would just spend the whole party working on their rig when we have lots of other responsibilities as Party Hosts.

I'm definitely considering the deposit based on several other's recommendations and of yours. I know you've expressed exactly all these points in private to me and it was a major part of my hesitation to do this.

I would also like to consider myself as the type of person who also looks for ways to "take the time to do some good for others." I know you and @infamousRNR have helped me indirectly with your videos, and @JZiggy has helped me directly with the caveat to pay it forward. I'd like to think I've kept that promise to him and hope that this is another way to generate some good will to not just myself, but to everyone else who regularly participates on this forum.

@weekendclimber thank you for doing something like this and yes it's a huge risk as you probably have met only a small percentage of the folks on this forum. What I will say to that is of all the forums I belong to (Hyundai and VW) this is the only crew that I would remotely start trusting with my tools (and to not stance an Elantra or Jetta).

With that a refundable deposit would be a great way to control it and keep it honest, but will post a logistical nightmare if your idea goes "viral".

I'd suggest a shared google-doc for sign-up as well as setting time-lines to it.
Example: 3 weeks after you receive it it has to go to the next person.

I've thought about doing something similar with the Yakima roof-boxes that I own: I'll take a $500 deposit, the "rental" is $10/day, if you use it for 5 days you get $450 back as long as it's returned in the same condition it left.

With your situation you will have wear and tear on the tool, I would honestly consider putting a slight up-charge to account for that wear: Say $5.

I'd "rent" it for $5 in heartbeat other than not having a press ☺

Lots of doom and gloom posts already so I thought I'd interject some real life experiences doing similar in the motorcycle world. I've bought into 3 different tools for loaner programs, and been the recipient of another 1 or 2. I think the highest priced was around $500, lowest was around $100. Longest timeframe I watched an item was roughly 8 years.

In all cases we had some safeguards, active member, or deposit, or personal voucher from someone "we" (the most active of the community) trusted. I don't recall anything ever being damaged, it seemed as though the people borrowing the tools were well informed on how to use the tools and the caution points to avoid. The absolute worst things I can say are that sometimes people would take their sweet time using the tools and getting them shipped on... and I get that life gets in the way sometimes but it was annoying for everyone else down the list. I know that several times people would be on the list and ask to be bumped down because they weren't ready. And for a couple of those things shipped around it was consumables (shims for valve adjustments) where occasionally one specific size would be used up. Fine, and planned for (there was a small cost to use these) but not everyone would post back and say that it was low on whatever shim(s) so the Next person would get stuck while we sourced what was needed.

Point is that while we were trepidatious about mailing off a few hundred dollars worth of parts/tools to unknown parties, no one got burned. We even got to a point where, as a forum, when there was a moderately expensive tool that was only used occasionally, we'd talk about crowd-source funding it with a user payback over time (volunteer pool of # of users, add ~20% and divide cost to see the per-use cost). It worked out a couple times and we bought the tools and were all paid back, thus turning the tool over to the forum admins (generally the people buying it in the first place) to control.

It's not all doom and gloom. People on the individual level are mostly good, honest and reliable. And I'm not just saying that because I just found oil in my rear drums and will soon be needing such a tool... :whistle: