Hubs – Too tight too loose?

That day Johnny told me his rear wheel is shaky. Yes looks like a loose hub. I noticed mine was slightly loosen after the Kota Tinggi trip and tightened it immediately but forgot to warn you guys to check. Mine wasn't as loose as Johnny’s though.

So how tight how loose? No play good to go, but over tightened hubs mean more resistance and faster bearing and cup wear. I tightened mine just to the point where they have no play. Some like to leave a hairline gap. Always check again when the wheel is tightened to the frame for any rubbing and ensure no play. If in doubt, remove wheel to check and readjust. Repeat this until you get that sweet touch, you’ll need to have a little patience here.

Loose hub: Axle turns smoothly but moving the axle back and forth result in a knocking feeling. Sometimes the easiest way to check for play is with the wheel still on the bike. Hold the bike off the ground and try to move the wheel side to side feeling for any knocking. Rotate the wheel half a rotation and try it again. If there is nothing that means the hub is fine or too tight. You will have to remove the wheel in order to determine how tight it is.

Tight hub: When you turn the axle, you’ll feel rubbing friction, almost like notches, that means the hub is way too tight!

 

The process of actually loosening or tightening the hub is fairly straight forward. You need thin wrenches to access the thin nuts on the wheel.  Each side has two nuts. The inner cone nut puts pressure directly on the bearing while the outer is a lock-nut. To loosen or tighten the hub you will need to loosen the outer lock-nut on one side of the hub first. Pick a side, put one wrench on the inner, one on the outer and loosen. Now you can loosen or tighten the inner cone nut to change the pressure on the bearings. When you’re finished adjusting the pressure, tighten the outer lock nut back down while using a wrench to make sure the inner cone nut does not turned together as well. If you do not do this you can end up tightening the hub.

That’s it!

Cleaning Hub

 

Just some old photo … Clean axle, cone, fasteners, bearing races & steel balls then pack grease generously. Wipe away excess that ooze out after tightening.

         

Dismantle Freehub

Did this sometime back.

Freewheel or Freehub? See picture. Left is the traditional screw or thread-on Freewheel and the one on the right is the newer Freehub/Cassette configuration. 

Picture from Sheldon Brown

Typical Freehub

Hand itchy, this time tiak Freehub. I think this is the one Sultan last time said noisy. Anyway, after tiak liao machiam a ‘black box’, nothing much to play with. Just remove the rubber seal/washer, flush with degreaser and relube.

I use a 11mm hex wrench to loosen the freehub holding bolt. Sizes may differs. eg typical Shimano hub is 10mm, others may be 12mm etc

 

  Can see the steel balls after removing rubber seal.

Spin it in Diesel. Then shake it violently similar to cleaning chain :)

Spin & shake to remove as much trap degreaser as you can. (lazy to use dryer). Then inject lots of oil (I use Engine Oil) into the exposed bearings. Spin it and continue to inject oil until excess oil//trap degreaser flows from the underside.

Remember to grease both the pawls and holding bolt before assembly.