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[Diamond Black Geezer]

Front bearings a piece of wee-wees, you can - and I have - done it in a car park. The rears (which seem to last longer) are the difficult (and expensive) ones. Guy near me will sell you a decent used pair of fronts for a tenner 

Again, can only repeat, it's the time that's the cost, not the parts. And again, may take a few hours, or all day. Sadly need a bit of semi-specialist equipment fabricating to do the job, too.

[Nick W]

If I figure out how to post pictures I'll show my Scrapbinium^tm hub extractor which was made on the car. It's a length of large bore hydraulic tubing, a pair of lugs with 8mm drilled holes, and a thick metal disc with a nut welded over a hole in the centre.  The lugs were bolted two of the brake backing plate holes, shaped to fit the tubing with an angle grinder, then all 3 pieces welded together on the car. Next I unbolted the part and welded the disc to the other end. Added a long M16 bolt, and refitted the complete extractor to the car. 30 seconds later I had the hub in my hand. We had struggled with other methods for 2 hours.

The tool looks horrible, but works well. No measurements were made, it was all done by eye. The only precision part of the job was the hole in the disc; I drilled and bored  it in the lathe as I didn't have a suitable drillbit, and hacking through 10mm steel with hand tools is not fun.

I do have a 3d model of the tool, that is waiting for an accurate layout of the boltholes. With that I would have a mounting ring laser cut in 6mm steel, face the ends of the tubing in the lathe, make the disc a stepped fit into the end, and TIG the assembly together on the bench. This would look much better and centre the push bolt over the hub for a straighter push. I'd also be happier about lending it out; it is the sort of thing that we should have available to forum members.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

As you are clearly a man of experience with rear hubs.. if for example: you had a scrap car, with good rear hubs you want, let's say you can have anything off the car for free - what would have to come off the car, if one didn't have the means to make one of these tools? Thanks 

[Nick W]

You would need the entire semi-trailing arm. If you're prepared to arse about replacing that for a £30 bearing that will last the remaining life of the car, then save your money. Remove your existing one, spend the money on a bearing, and have the hub and then bearing pressed out.

The rear bearings are not part of the hub, which is a part that should always be reusable.

Second-hand bearings are something that I find very  difficult to justify unless new ones are unavailable.