How to remove the ball bearing in select Ping putters

Are you having difficulty removing a broken shaft from a Ping putter?

Even though you make have heated the hosel cherry red, you still cannot remove that remaining piece of shaft? What may look like a simple repair may actually turn into a chore not for the faint of heart. Chance are there may be a small ball bearing inside the shaft preventing the shaft from coming out.  On certain Ping putters a small ball bearing is cooled to allow it to shrink, then inserted down to the bottom of a tapered shaft so that when it achieves a normal temperature it expands and forms some sort a mechanical lock (supposedly to make the putter feel more solid).  Here is one way on how to fix that problem.

Options and repair tips

The first thing to do is ask permission from the customer because some drilling will be involved.  If the customer asks “What is my other option?” tell the customer they could send it back to Ping to have them fix it.  Once you have the OK, then you want to place the putter in a padded vise with the hosel pointing down.  Some of these putters (like an Anser 2) have a spur-like hosel and you want to see the bottom of it.

Carefully, take a 1/8" drill bit and go through the spur-like hosel to penetrate where the center of the hosel (or shaft) is.  You want to save any of the metal shavings as you will need them later. Once you have drilled though the bottom of the hosel, take a 1/8" pin punch and drive the ball bearing up from the tip of the shaft.  Now you heat up the hosel to remove the broken shaft.

Next after the putter head has cooled, you can epoxy the new putter shaft (it will require a 0.355” taper tip model) and mix the metal shaving in with some epoxy and fill the hole in the bottom of the head.  If you didn’t save any of the shaving, you could go to a hardware store or some place that cuts keys.  They will be more than happy to give you the metal shavings left around the key cutter.  (Note: it will not be necessary to put the ball bearing back inside the shaft – save it as a souvenir)