Rear cones

[jimboalee]

Maintenance/repair day yesterday.

Rode off for my Saturday morning ride and heared a clicking sound from the rear end.
I have heared this before and it is the rear cones.

Stripped the rear axle and yes, a small pit in the driveside cone.

I had only renewed the rear cones in April, 3000 miles ago, so why should they get a pit this early.

Then it occured to me....

The rear wheel has not been out since then cus I haven't had a P*..

So here's some advise for all those readers who haven't got cartridge hubs but do have P* resistant tyres.

"Take the wheels out periodically and turn the axle to a different position."

PS. New cones £1.00 each from LBS ( good mates ).

 

[spandex]

The pit comes from over tightening the cone (just once will do it)

Ps you do not have to move the wheel in the drop out as the bearings are moving around the cone all the time.

 

[jimboalee]

If I over tightened the cone on initial assembly and a ball pitted (Brinelled) the race, it would have clicked from the outset.
The clicking started after 3000 miles of use.

The stresses on the race are not uniform. The hub cup is pulled against the cone with every pedalstroke, especially when putting all my bodyweight on the pedal up a 16%. The rear quarter of the cone suffers most.

My explanation is I left the axle in the same position for too long AND the case hardening on the first replacement cone was so thin, it polished off.

 

[hodsgod]

Why would you need to change the axle position? one race is constantly moving as are the balls. I can't see any reason to change the axle position. Why don't we need to change car wheel positions? they have the same bearing principal.

I would suggest you over tightened the bearing a little, this would speed up the wear rate but also allow you to ride without clicking.

 

[Steve Austin]

Sounds like you need to learn how to do maintenance on your bike jimbo. if you got any questions, feel free to ask on here, i'm sure you could learn something.

 

[jimboalee]

It gets stranger and stranger.
This is my first encounter with premature cone wear in thirty years of bike maintenance.

I have learned something on this forum, indeed I have, and I didn't need to ask.

The most recent piece of learning is such :-

Don't bother offering any advice.

 

[jimboalee]

Oh, and IF I do run into a problem, I have several good friends and LBS owners who I can speak to Face-to-face.

My original posting was a bit of advice, not an INSTRUCTION.

If you choose not to take the advice, that's up to you.

I was sharing my experience.

BTW. I have shown the bad cone to my friend at one LBS and his reaction was "Ball out of round".

Now consider this Steve.

"If one guy says "Pop your wheel out every so often and it might reduce the chance of premature cone wear", and another guy says "You needn't bother, the cones won't fail", which guy would you heed, or are you as stupid as the second guy?

 

[Steve Austin]

I can't understand your post Jimbo.
are you saying you have a problem with your cones that you need advice on?

Have you tried asking for help at your LBS? Its a fairly easy task, but if your having trouble, i would leave it someone who knows what they are doing.

 

[jimboalee]

I can't understand your post Jimbo.
are you saying you have a problem with your cones that you need advice on?

Have you tried asking for help at your LBS? Its a fairly easy task, but if your having trouble, i would leave it someone who knows what they are doing.

IF you cannot understand my post, then keep quiet until you do.

IF at sometime in the future you become aware of what is being said on this thread, then you could offer some meaningful advice.

Re-read my last posting.
I said I took the cone to my LBS and the good man there said "BALL OUT OF ROUND".

There was nothing I could have done about it, or even the LBS man could have done about it. Or even YOU.


The fault was found, the wheel is now fine, the debate is now ended.

 

[Steve Austin]

nope, don't understand any of it. you appear to be talking gibberish.

 

[02GF74]

I said I took the cone to my LBS and the good man there said "BALL OUT OF ROUND".

how did he know without seeing your balls? did you replace some bearings from two different suppliers?

my expereince is this happens due to overtightening.

 

[jimboalee]

how did he know without seeing your balls? did you replace some bearings from two different suppliers?

my expereince is this happens due to overtightening.

The polishing marks on the cone.

The pack of balls was from LBS.

There was no overtightening. I use the 'tried and trusted' method Sheldon Brown describes.