Phil Wood track hub bearing replacement

Sorry, looked around for earlier threads on this but couldn't find any.

I have received a new set of Phil Wood sealed bearing cartridges, but I am stuck trying to figure out how to undo the current bearings. On the photo below you can see a spacer that's perfectly smooth so can't be wrenched out. Inside the spacer there is a hex key pattern, but with no way of applying resistance to the spline I just end up spinning it endlessly. There was an identical (?) spacer on the other side that came off without force.

Any suggestions as to the next step?

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@giofox ?

Urgh, it's been 6y since I last did this on PW hubs.. My memory doesn't span that far anymore unfortunately. Can you post a picture of the other side of the hub?

Put some Allen keys in the holes, I can’t remember the size, 8mm perhaps. Might be smaller on the front hub, you might need one on either side depending on how tightly they are

I think once you have one end cap off you screw the bolt back into that end of the axle then rubber mallet time. Over 10 years since I had Phil hubs though

This is it^.

If you can’t grip the axle well enough to loosen the cap that hasn’t undone, I’ve heard a good way to break the seal is to mount it in a frame, and with its bolt do up that side to proper torque. Then use your allen on the other side , cap back in but no bolt. As you do it up, the other cap will undo. Obvs the cap is now done up on the other side, but hopefully won’t be so hard to undo.

This is way harder to explain in words than it seems in my head.

Just to get the terminology right; is the thing in my photo the cap or the bolt?

Cap
The bolt is the thing that holds the hub onto the biek

So:
Whack (not steel hammer) using the bolt that you’ve put back into the axle now you’ve removed spacer.
Bearing, stubborn end cap and axle will pop out the other side.
Grip axle somewhere in the centre, undo the remaining cap*. Pull bearing off. Pop bearing still in hub shell.

*the advice further up is for if this bit isn’t working.

Making any sense?

Then get your hub shell powdercoated bright pink. And you’re back to 2008.

Yeah, that makes sense actually.
Need to borrow a rubber mallet from somewhere before I continue.

So hopefully the bearings themselves come out without the need for force or special tools?

Bro, do you know how you are getting the bearings back in? All bearings need force but you can bodge special tools

Using a quick release and the old bears on the outside as protection has always work for my Phil hubs.

This is good^