WizardOfBoz

Ok, here's some Bearings 101.

1) When you seat a bearing into place, you can't have the mounting force transmit through the bearing. So if you were pushing these bearings into the wheel so that the outer race was fixed, you can't push it on using the inner race. You would have to push the outer race into the bearing recess, perhaps using a short piece of pipe that has an ID slightly smaller than the bearing OD, and the ID large enough so that no part of the pipe touches the bearing seals or the inner race.


The reason you don't transmit mounting force through the bearing is that the mounting forces are way higher than side forces your bearings would normally see. The forces and the angles of the bearings gang up to create tremendous pressures on the points where the ball meet the face. This causes little dents to form. It's called "Brinnelling". One the dents are there, the bearing is toast (ruined). You need to replace it.

2) When you used the work "hit" it sent shudders up and down my spine. One does not "hit" bearings into place. Hitting is an uncontrolled force, and the peak forces from "hitting" are higher than those applied by a proper press (or, as i said, a piece of all-thread from the hardware store). Ideally, one presses them into place using a press as above, or more cheaply by using a piece of all-thread (threaded rod) with washers (and perhaps that small length of pipe) and nuts on each end. This allows one to ensure that the bearing goes in straight, and the force supplied is controlled. In a pinch, one could use that piece of pipe and could very gently and gradually tap the bearing in. But to do so, you risk having the thing go in at an angle. Not optimal.

Industrially, when a bearing is installed in a seat in steel or cast iron, the fit can be very tight. For this class of interference fit (where the hole is actually smaller than the bearing OD or the shaft is larger than the bearing ID) folks use heaters and freezers (or even dry ice or liquid nitrogen!) to allow the parts to fit together. In the relatively flexible (aluminum allow, less metal to reduce weight) world of bikes its is pretty much overkill except for some specific uses.

The guys at GCN put together a video on replacing wheel bearings. You may find it useful. If you Brinneled your bearings, you learned a lesson pretty cheaply. (More expensive lesson? "Never set up a wheel as tubeless using a rim not designed for tubeless").
Watch the video, do your homework, and install a new set properly. You'll have nice wheels and you'll have learned something.

Here's a bearing press (you can make one with all-thread or a bolt, and some washers and short lengths of pipe:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....2BUBrTk7sL.jpg