Campagnolo Zonda Hubs

[SWSteve]

hi,

My front wheel has a bit of vibration when I spin it, so am thinking it's time to look at the bearings and replace if required. Is this difficult to do? Anything in particular I should need? If new bearings are needed, how do I learn what I need to buy?

Thanks in advance

 

[dim]

have the wheels trued (spokes tightened)? .... costs a tenner at most bike shops

 

[Ajax Bay]

Check you have still got the vibration when you spin it with the tyres off.

 

[SWSteve]

Check you have still got the vibration when you spin it with the tyres off.

What will that show?

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Is this a vibration or a wobble?

 

[Graeme_FK]

To determine exactly what the issue is:

1. With the wheel held in the forks, lift the front of the bike and try and move the rim laterally - is there side-to-side play in the hub?
2. If yes - with the wheel still in the forks (so the QR is still putting a compressive load on the axle), undo the 2.5mm allen screw on the adjuster collar (should be on the left side of the wheel as you look down from the saddle, it's a black plastic ring passing around the axle) and carefully and gently using a 21 mm spanner, turn the adjusting collar clockwise until you have ONLY JUST removed the side-to-side play in the hub. Do not exert any force at all - as soon as the collar stops turning, stop. Then re-tighten the 2.5 mm locking screw.
3. If no / after step 2 - take the wheel out of the bike - turn the wheel spindle between thumb and forefinger - is there any roughness or catching?
4. If so, or if the action is either very "free", or very notchy and/ or difficult to move smoothly, the bearings need a rebuild.

The extent of the rebuild you need to do will vary according to what you find.
The extent of the work required defines whether this is a job best left to a retailer or not.

If you are not very experienced, my advice is to take the wheel to a Campagnolo ProShop (listing at www.campagnolo.com under "Shops") and get them to take a look. If the internal bearing cups are damaged (which if you have ridden the wheel with damaged or loose bearings for any length of time, they may well be), then a ProShop should have the correct drifts and presses to replace these parts - they will in any case be in a position to strip everything down and have a proper look.

Don't be misled by people who tell you that you can get away without the correct tooling to this job - it's true, it can be bodged without the right tools but we regularly have to rescue jobs that have been sent to us by individuals and shops who have tried to shortcut by using the wrong tools for the job. At best it takes a lot longer than it should and at worst, you can end up fatally damaging the hub shell itself, which is not available as a spare.

You can send the wheel(s) to us if you choose. We are pretty busy at the moment but we do have all the parts on hand all the time and have done, since starting at the main Campagnolo Technical and Service Centre in the UK in 2008, scores of hub rebuilds on the higher-end Campag wheels which all use this bearing assembly or variations on it. Costs will vary according to what we find.

If the wheel is out of true (i.e. the bearings are not loose and the rim has side to side or up and down movement, seen most easily when it passes through the brake blocks but make sure you are looking at the rim, not the tyre), that is a Campag ProShop job to true. Shops unfamiliar with the job nearly always forget to hold the spokes still as they try and turn the nipples and forget / don't know that the nipples are loctited so have to be released before they can be turned - and should be re-loctited after the job is done. Again, we have to rescue a fair number of wheels that have been worked on by people who are not familiar with the job. We have 3 pairs in the workshop at this moment in that category, one rear wheel of which has been effectively scrapped by the shop not really knowing what they were doing.

Unworn, and correctly adjusted bearings are an essential pre-requisite of good wheel truing, so any shop worth their salt will check and service the bearings as part of a truing job.

HTH

 

[alecstilleyedye]

is that the same process for campag vento reaction wheels?

 

[Graeme_FK]

is that the same process for campag vento reaction wheels?

With Vento, it depends on the age of the wheels.

If they have an adjusting collar (MY2014 onwards), you can diagnose following steps 1-3 the same way.
If they don't have an adjusting collar, just check for lateral movement at the rim.

In both cases, if the bearings are in need of work, the Vento Reaction uses cartridge bearings so the bearings are not serviced, as such, they are replaced.
We have the original Campagnolo bearings in stock for both versions of the wheel (the type with and without adjusting collar are different). We strongly recommend that the Campagnolo spare parts are used, not generics. We know the size tolerances involved all match up. We have seen non-Campag bearings used that are not a good fit in the hubs.

Something I should have mentioned above (ref. the Zondas) as well, is that on doing a bearing "feel" check, on the rear wheel you do have to remember that the cassette body & the hub bearings are two completely different bearing systems so what feels bike bad hub bearings in the rear wheel may actually be bad cassette body bearings. The best thing is to check the rear wheel bearings with the cassette body in place and if they feel rough, drop the cassette body off and try the bearing feel test again - if the wheel bearings then feel OK, the roughness was in the cassette body bearings and these can in most cases be replaced - sometimes you can do this, if you are a confident home mechanic with the right tools, yourself - otherwise we'd recommend either a ProShop or a Service Centre does it.

To take the cassette body off is a different process on the Zonda or on MY2014 Vento Reaction or later - in this case put a 5 mm allen key in the cassette body end of the axle, and using a 17 mm spanner turn the nut on the cassette end of the axle clockwise (it is LH threaded). Remove the nut and spacer benerath then gently pull the cassette body whilst turning the axle (not the cassette body) relative to the hub - the cassette body has a shaping inside that matches a collar on the axle and these points have to line up before the cassette body will come off.

If it's the earlier Vento, use two 17 mm spanners to release the non-drive-side cap off the axle. The axle can then be withdrawn through the hub with afairly firm pull towards the cassette side and the cassette body taken off the axle once it is out. Note that there are spacers on the axle and they need to go back in the same places as they were on withdrawal, when the cassette body is reassembled to the axle and the axle reassembled into the hub.

 

[yadder]

Take a link. Over there is PDF and in pictures evevrything simply
https://www.campagnolo.com/media/fi... and refitting_front_hub_Campagnolo_12-12.pdf

 

[Graeme_FK]

Take a link. Over there is PDF and in pictures evevrything simply
https://www.campagnolo.com/media/files/035_69_Technical manual_wheels_assembly and refitting_front_hub_Campagnolo_12-12.pdf

This link covers high end front hubs (Zonda upwards) only and there are some pieces of information missing, because these tech docs are designed for trained mechanics with some pre-knowledge of Campagnolo. It's why I didn't link it.
This job, unless the OP is quite experienced (which from the post does not appera to be the cae) and has access to the tools, really is a ProShop or SC job.

 

[SWSteve]

have the wheels trued (spokes tightened)? .... costs a tenner at most bike shops

Have spun whilst in dropout, no obvious movement to/away from brake blocks (from what I could see anyway).

Is this a vibration or a wobble?

A vibration. As @Ajax Bay suggested, I span whilst tyres were off, and the vibration was a lot lower.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Have spun whilst in dropout, no obvious movement to/away from brake blocks (from what I could see anyway).



A vibration. As @Ajax Bay suggested, I span whilst tyres were off, and the vibration was a lot lower.

I don't understand how a tyre can make a difference to a vibration.

However, cones which are too tight and/or rough bearings may cause a vibration. But, that you should feel when you twist the axle in the hub using your fingers.