Aside from cleaning gunk out of a manky cassette, my least favourite bike maintenance task has to be servicing cup and cone bearings in a hub. This is something of a promotion for this task, as days gone by would have easily seen the servicing of ye olde square taper bottom bracket bearings in the #1 least favourite slot, but it’s been a while since I’ve owned a bike with a square taper crankset, never mind a non-cartridge bearing BB. Anyway, I digress… As with any bike servicing task, having the right tools to hand will invariable prove a significant improvement over bodging. It also helps, particularly with infrequent maintenance tasks, if you have a detailed procedure to hand. You can benefit from my experience by following these detailed steps:
- Jet wash the bike (because it hasn’t been cleaned in a loooong time!) blasting lots of solid black gunk from the cassette, chainset, rear derailleur, jockey wheels, etc.
- Remove rear wheel from bike.
- Remove the QR skewer and put it somewhere safe.
- Use a chain whip and a cassette lockring removal tool to take off the cassette. Marvel at how disgustingly dirty it is, even after jet washing. Throw the entire thing in a old basin full of degreaser.
- remove the rubber seals with a dental pick (an incredibly useful tool – every toolbox should have one!). Lay the seals aside on a sheet of clean paper.
- Select a cone spanner and adjustable wrench from the tool box and apply to the drive side cones and non-drive side lock nut respectively.
- Throw the cone spanner back in the toolbox and select the other one, which fits.
- Remove the non-drive side lock nut, spacers and cone, laying them carefully aside, with the seals, in the order they were removed.
- withdraw the axle from the hub
- search the garage floor for the three ball bearings which fell out of the hub and immediately vanished.
- With a 10mm Allen key, remove the freehub body and its associated washer.
- Clean everything.
- Re-attach the freehub body to the hub and ponder why it no longer functions.
- Re-remove the freehub body from the hub. Replace the washer and re-refit the freehub. Marvel at it’s correct functioning.
- Apply fresh grease to the hub bearing cups and replace the bearings. Search the garage floor for the two escaped bearings; clean and fit the escapees upon recapture.
- Carefully refit the axle.
- Remove the axle and refit from the correct side.
- Refit the non-drive side cone and tighten until the bearings run freely but without play.
- Refit the spacers and locknut; use the cone spanner and adjustable wrench to tighten the lockring and cone. Test that the bearing still turns freely without play.
- Remove the locknut spacers and cone. Refit the missing seal. Reassmble the cone, spacers and locknut.
- Remove the locknut, spacers, cone and incorrectly applied seal. Remove the axle and refit the correct, driveside seal. Refit the axle.
- Search garage floor for an escaped bearing. Clean, regrease and refit upon recapture.
- Refit the non-drive side cone, spacers and locknut. Ensure the bearings still turn freely but with no play and tighten the locknut. Refit the non-drive side seal.
- Refit the cleaned cassette.
- Search the workbench for the QR skewer.
- Search garage floor for the QR skewer.
- Find QR skewer on the workbench where it bl**dy well wasn’t the first time you looked.
- Refit the rear wheel, tighten QR, apply lubricant as appropriate and check that the rear derailleur indexing still works.
Despite lots of off-roading, followed by years of neglect, and some more recent commuting duty, and a jet washing; I am pleased to report that my elderly Shimano LX hub still has pristine bearing surfaces and seems likely to outlast the vintage Cannondale frame (a ’96 M500, for those who care about such things!) it turns in. This is in marked contrast to the experience of attempting to service a 2 year old hub on another bike. Although bashing out the sealed cartridge bearing was a doddle, it transpired that the manufacturer (Token?) no longer made that hub and there is essentially no chance of finding a new freehub to fit. Scrap one wheel…
Like Arnie said in one of his many Terminator franchise films, “Old, but not obsolete”. Wish I could say the same about me!