I decided to take one step after the other and began by taking of the two screws that held the brake assembly to the wheel. The main axle had to be taken out as well to get the assembly off but pulling that preinstalled cotter pin out was something. You have to pull it out as far as it would let you and then start bending it a little, pull a little more then bend a little more and so until it finally comes out. Removing the nut and pulling the axle then is a piece of cake.
The next step is to remove the brake rotor. Easy to do by removing 3 screws.
Then turn the rim over and remove the 6 nuts. 3 nuts do not need the bolt to be support from the other side. Those 3 are the ones that also protrude through the hub. You'll see later why that is. Splitting the rim needs a little wiggling with the help of a flat screwdriver. Help the rim to come apart step by step. It can take a bit as the fit is really tight.
The 3 bolts you had to support while taking the nuts off are the ones that should come out easily. I noticed that the bolts didn't have washer under their heads. All of the nuts did.
Now's a good time to remove those bearings. Mine were completely dry, so no need to remove any grease.
Those last 3 bolts have to get unscrewed from the hub. YES, the hub is tapped and the bolts are screwed into the hub and then countered with the nuts you had removed earlier. That's why there was no need to support these bolts while unscrewing the nuts.
These bolts will be tricky to torque correctly when reassembling the wheel. I ordered a 1/4" hex driver with a 3/8" shaft to attach to my torque wrench but I'll have to wait until it gets here.
Taking the hub out (yes, you'll have to although you might not believe it now. Try to push the valve stem through the rim and you'll see that the rim of the hub prevents this from happening) is easily done with a wooden hammer or something similarly light. Then it's on to put the tube on the rim.
You'll might want to do it right, I know I did, and put the valve stem washer and the valve nut on the valve stem to hold it firmly in the center of the hole in the rim. I tried every trick in the book, I even thinned the washer down to half the thickness...
... but to no avail. Even when I got the not on the whole assembly to just catch on the first thread, I couldn't tighten it or pull on the valve stem from inside without pulling the nut off. There was just no way to get the washer on.
I decided just put the nut on (with the rounded edges facing the rim) and tighten it slightly to hold the valve stem in the center and hope for the best. I read others did the same thing and were fine.
After "solving" this problem, I put the hub back in and screwed the bolts back in, not finally torqued because of the missing tool. You'll have to tighten the valve nut correctly and align the nut to allow the hub to pass it, so you won't have a chance to tighten a valve nut that is too loose when you inflate the tire. The hub won't allow the nut to turn. I just hope I found the right amount of torque without pulling the valve out of the tube...
Then it was on to dusting the tube with talc and stuff it into the tire and mounting the other half of the rim back on. A piece of advise on the tire talc before you do this task: The reason it's so hard to get talc these days is because this stuff is almost as bad for your lungs as asbestos. So don't breathe it in. Not now and not later, which means don't do the dusting in the work shop. Although you might see my talc can sitting on the work bench I actually went outside behind the shop and did the job there while wearing a light respirator. And I put the wheel on the work bench carefully only for the photos. The work in between was done outside in the car port.
And then finally putting the other bolts and nuts back in that hold the rim together.
This is where I stopped as I don't have the right tools to tighten the hub bolts before putting the nuts on. The whole ordeal with the first main wheel took around 2 hours. I am sure that know that I understand how it is supposed to work the second one will take more around 30 minutes.
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