RidingAgain Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 (edited) Yesterday I carried out my first hub service on a older 26" wheel. One of Shimano's loose ball bearing hubs. Taking it apart was easy enough. I first took a look at a diagram of it I found online, then watched a video on how to do it. Great... But when I put it all back together... I encountered a little problem... Tightening the cups so that they were not overtightened on the bearings. Understanding how ball bearings work, I just hand tightened the cups until there was a little pressure against the bearings, then I hand tightened the nuts (spacers in between), then used a wrench and socket to tighten further. Thing is, as I tightened the nuts, the cups kept getting tightened also, which meant more pressure of the bearings, which is not what you want. I kept trying to figure out what I was doing wrong and drew a blank. Then back to good 'ol Youtube... And RJ The Bike Guy (his voice is a bit of a teeth grinder, but he's very helpful with older bike stuff fixes). Simple fix that just eluded me... Edited May 25, 2020 by RidingAgain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mack_turtle Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 (edited) By "tighten the cups" I assume you mean "adjust the CONES." The cups are fixed inside the hub shell. Cones are adjusted until they do not allow any play. The degree to which the hubs spin smoothly after the cones have removed play depends on the condition and quality of the components. Cone wrenches are essential for working on hubs like that. Most modern hubs don't need them except Shimano. Edited May 25, 2020 by mack_turtle 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mack_turtle Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 The best tool to do this is a hub vice to account for skewer preload, but those are not common. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidingAgain Posted May 26, 2020 Author Share Posted May 26, 2020 Thanks mack_turtle... The problem was me not adjusting the outside nut to the proper position and then tightening the cone (thanks) against it. One side, the driver side I didn't move, so I didn't have to do any measurements to balance the sides. I got it sorted pretty quickly this afternoon. Wheel spins really nice now, just need to true a little. That video was also great in that I found out a bolt on hub can be changed to a quick release with just the purchase of the proper through bolt. That will be helpful too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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