Hot Plate
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Hot Plate
Although originally intended for the kitchen, a Hot Plate can be extremely useful when working on kart engines, especially for mounting and removing crankshaft bearings. The aluminium material of the crank case has a larger rate of expansion than a steel bearing. Placing a crank case half with its old bearing upside down on a Hot Plate will, in most cases, make the bearing drop out after some minutes, without the need for applying any force at all. New bearings can be dropped in while the crank case half is still hot. Sometimes it helps to freeze the new bearing first, to make it slightly smaller. When everything is back to room temperature, the bearing will have a perfect interference fit.