DIY bike rear hub repair

One of the most practical and healthy means of transport is the bicycle. However, its maintenance can cost you a pretty penny if you do not know how to repair at least minor breakdowns.

In such cases, it is simply necessary to have such skills as attention to detail and accuracy, since they will help you to repair or disassemble any part, for example, the rear hub of a bicycle wheel.

One of the most important parts of a bicycle is its wheel. In particular, the rear wheel is much more loaded than the front wheel, since it is on it that the ratchet (freewheel mechanism) and the cassette (sprocket block) are installed. The wheel is the main focus when driving, so it is important to understand the design of its hub in order to be able to properly maintain it.

The hub is a wheel element, fixed to the bike frame, namely the drop points. This is the central part of the wheel that allows it to rotate freely.

The bushing consists of elements such as:

One of the reasons for dividing the rear hubs into varieties is their design. Depending on it, the rear bushings are divided into:

1. Without brake.
2. With built-in brakes.

It should be said that bushings that are not equipped with a braking mechanism are also divided into those without free play and with free play. With an integrated foot brake, the hubs are designed with free play. If we are talking about the version of the hub with a brake mechanism, then their main feature is that the pedals must be pressed in the opposite direction to stop the bike.

According to the method of fixing, the bushings can be fixed on two nuts, which is much cheaper, or they can be fixed with an eccentric. The second method is more expensive, but much more convenient, since the nuts must be removed with a wrench, and to remove the wheel on the eccentric, it is enough to squeeze its handle. It only takes a couple of seconds.

The material of manufacture also matters. Bushings are:

1. Aluminum (lightweight and non-corrosive).
2. Steel (strong but heavy and highly corrosive).

The bushings also differ in the size of the axle, the standards are different - from 9mm to 15mm. Keep in mind that the larger the sleeve, the heavier it is.

For the correct operation of the wheel and its main parts, incl. bushings, it must be kept in good condition at all times. It needs lubrication, and its body needs to be tightened periodically. In addition, replacing the bearing balls and adjusting the pads on the brake sleeve will not interfere.

Rear hub service is essential as in cases where this does not occur, the entire wheel may need to be repaired. Therefore, it is best to take care of your bike in the long run. It should be noted that servicing the rear hub is not much more difficult than servicing the front hub.

It is necessary to carry out maintenance in such cases:

1. If you hear body noise when the bike is moving or wobbling.
2. Backlash.
3. If the bearings crunch.
4. Poor rolling dynamics.

If you ignore the above signs of "illness" of your bike and use it for a long time if they are present, it can quickly fail.

Repair, in turn, will be much more expensive than simple wheel maintenance, which you can do yourself. Therefore, at the beginning of each season, check the wheel for play and that the bearings are not too tight.

Before proceeding with the disassembly of the case, it is necessary to clean the workplace, since it is very important to carry out all stages very carefully and with utmost care.

First, remove the cassette from the axle using a puller and a whip. Then we open the circlip and remove the washers and bearings. In order not to get confused in the details, it is important to remember the original location of the washers and bearings.

After lubrication, the bushing must be reassembled. To properly assemble the rear hub, you must adhere to the following rules:

1. We insert the axis so as not to confuse which side is the right side of the axis, which is fixed tightly. The axis is adjusted with the left cone.
2. Next, put the left cone on the axle until it stops.
3. We put on the washers.
4. We screw on the lock nut.
5. We adjust the bearings.

1. Checking the workplace. We clean the workplace of unnecessary tools, things that are not useful to you.
2. Remove the retaining ring.
3. Remove the hub axle. First, remove all the parts that are on the opposite side of the stars.

Most often, the repair of the rear wheel hub is necessary either with backlash or when tightening the cone. So, step by step instructions:

1. Checking the workplace. We clean the workplace of unnecessary tools, things that are not useful to you.
2. Loosen the lock nut with a wrench.
3. Loosen or tighten the flare nut.
4. Tighten the locknut into place.

If the cause of the breakdown is a malfunction or breakdown of any part, then you should simply replace it using the following recommendations:

1. After checking the workplace, remove the retaining ring.
2. Remove the hub axle. First, remove all the parts that are on the opposite side of the stars.
3. We check the details for a malfunction.
4. We replace the broken part.
5. We put all the parts in place, tighten the flare nuts and the locknut.

Bicycle wheel breakage occurs for various reasons. There can be a large number of them.

The main ones are:

1. Insufficient or no bushing maintenance.
2. Loose bushing (backlash).
3. Poor bushing parts.
4. Wear.
5. Padding the cone.

Thus, to ensure the long service life of your bike, you should devote a certain amount of time to it. The basis of a bike's long-term service is maintenance. You can do this yourself, with your own hands. The main thing in this is to observe safety precautions and carefully approach the matter, since every detail is important in the sleeve mechanism.

To service the bushing, it is necessary to remove all parts, lubricate, first removing all old grease. And then carefully re-install all parts in the reverse order. In this case, you should carefully consider the tightening of the locknuts and flare nut, so as not to overtighten them. In addition, there are different types of rear bushings.

Have you ever disassembled the rear hub of your bike? Let's talk about how to disassemble the rear hub of a mountain bike, in particular the hub shimano FH-RM30-8.

Not long ago, I wanted to go over the rear hubs of my bikes. As it turned out, both had shimano FH-RM30-8 bushings.

The shimano FH-RM30-8 hub is an 8-9 speed cassette hub, usually used on inexpensive mountain bikes. Suitable for V-brakes. Available with holes for 32 and 36 spokes.

In general, there is a wide variety of rear hubs for mountain bikes. Therefore, if for any reason you want to replace the rear hub on your bike or even the entire rear wheel assembly, be very careful. At first, out of inexperience, I bought a wheel assembly with a completely different hub, in the hope that it would fit. But it did not fit =)) Therefore, when replacing the hub, it is better to take the one that was on your bike initially. And yet.

1. Count the number of spokes on the rim of your wheel and the number of holes on the hub. There are 32, 36 on mountain bikes.
2. Count the number of sprockets (gears) that should be on your rear wheel. If there are 8-9 sprockets, then the cassette is put on a drum (ratchet). If there are 7 sprockets, then this is probably an even cheaper option, when sprockets (with a built-in ratchet) are threaded onto the bushing.
3. Look at the type of brakes on your bike. If the brakes are disc brakes, there must be a suitable place on the hub for mounting the disc.

First you need to remove the wheel. We spread the brushes of the V-brake brakes. We turn the eccentric. We take out the wheel.

Now remove the cassette with asterisks.

To remove the cassette, we need a special puller. The puller has slots on one side and a square key hole on the other.

We insert the puller with the splines into the nut.

Next, take a square head wrench.

Insert the key into the cassette remover.

We put on the biggest star whip (a whip is a stick with a piece of a bicycle chain to keep the cassette from turning).
We hold the sprockets with a whip (clockwise), and with a wrench with a puller, unscrew the nut holding the cassette as usual (counterclockwise).

Once the nut is unscrewed, the sprocket cassette can be easily removed from the rear hub drum.

The cassette itself can be disassembled into separate asterisks. (When I first disassembled the cassette into its components, I found a colossal amount of adhered dirt, even branches with grass are wound there, it took a long time to clean, but then the cassette shone like new. In general, the cassette needs to be cleaned periodically, gears will switch clearer, and it will look better)

You can now start disassembling the shimano FH-RM30-8 bushing itself.

We unscrew the locking nut.

We take out the remote ring.

We unscrew the cone.

We put everything in order so as not to forget which side they unscrewed. The photo shows a diagram of a similar sleeve FH-RM40-8.

After we have unscrewed the cone, we can take out the axle. Bulk bearings are visible on both sides of the sleeve.

From the side of the drum, carefully using a screwdriver, pull out the pressure washer. I first wanted to use pliers, which caused the washer to wrinkle. A screwdriver is best done. We just swing it in one direction, then in the other direction, and the washer is easily pulled out.

We take out the bearings. There should be 18 of them in total. 9 on each side. We put the bearings in a glass, where they can be washed from the grease.

We disassemble the remains of the axis. Unscrew the right cone and nut. We clean all parts from grease.

Thus, the sleeve is disassembled, but the drum is not disassembled. A new shimano FH-RM30-8 hub with a drum (ratchet) costs about 500-600 rubles. Therefore, I decided not to disassemble the drum (ratchet) of the bushing. For the same reason, the shimano FH-RM30-8 rear hub drum is considered conditionally not collapsible. Due to the fact that the drum of the old hub on my bike did not spin as fast as I would like (I have two bicycles, both with a shimano FH-RM30-8 hub), in the end I decided to buy a new shimano FH-RM30- hub. 8, and then, in order not to rearrange the spokes, I decided to pull out all the insides of the new hub, including the drum (ratchet), and put it on the old one, leaving only the hub body in place. I was pleased with this decision. The bike went faster.

Read also:  DIY repair of scratches on the bumper without painting

Here is another photo of the parsing of the new bushing. (By the way, the number of knitting needles was not important to me, so it is different)

He unscrewed the lock nuts, pulled out the washers, spacer ring, cones and the axle itself.

With a screwdriver, I pulled out the pressure washer from the drum side.

After I pulled out all the bearings and wiped off the grease. I see a kind of washer with two slotted holes. There was a desire to unscrew it, but it did not work out. Need a makeshift puller.The production of which is possibly more expensive than a new sleeve. In addition, if you can still untwist this spline nut, then it is not yet known how easy it is to sort out the shimano FH-RM30-8 hub drum and whether it will be of any use.

To disconnect the drum from the sleeve, unscrew the screw.

This screw (which is in the center and holds the drum) is unscrewed either with a hexagon or a Torex. The new sleeve was screwed on rather tightly. So I had to put a cassette on the hub and use a whip to hold it. It is much easier to unscrew this screw if the hub is already on the wheel. There's more torque from the wheel rim. But after the screw was unscrewed for the first time, it became possible to unscrew it even with a wide flat screwdriver.

The screw has been removed. The drum is removed.

In general, the whole snag is still in the slotted washer, without it the drum itself cannot be disassembled.

Hope my article helped you disassemble the shimano FH-RM30-8 rear hub.

The hub is the center piece of the wheel attached to the bike frame. Performs the function of free wheel rotation, preventing slipping and turning. Since the bike has two wheels, there are two bushings: front and rear, respectively.

The front one allows the wheel to rotate freely, the rear one, in addition, determines the roll of the bike - the efficiency of movement without applied loads. The world of bicycles is diverse, so each type has its own part. We will talk about what they are, as well as how to serve independently, later in the article.

Depending on the design, the rear hub has several modifications:

• with free wheeling, without brake mechanism;
• brakeless, not having a free wheeling;
• with built-in foot brake and free play.

The fundamental difference between the braking version is that to stop the bicycle on the pedals, you need to press in the opposite direction. Inside there is a brake mechanism: a drum and pads, which are activated when the star rotates in the opposite direction.

In addition to drums, there is another type - a worm bushing. These types are found on single speed road bikes. The pedal braking performance is not very high, as only the rear wheel stops. But the resource of such parts and unpretentiousness boldly negate this minus!

Non-brake bushings are installed on high-speed bicycles. Compared to brakes, they have a simpler device, smaller and lighter. Free play prevents the pedals from rotating when the wheel is moving.

On a bike without freewheel, the opposite is true: the wheel rotates the rear sprocket, which transmits torque through the chain to the drive sprocket and connecting rods. The non-brake type can be found on the wheel of mountain and road bicycles, and the version without free wheeling is used on fix bikes.

Wheel reducers with a hidden gear change system, otherwise called planetary gears, have become widespread. This type of bicycle hub is used on road bikes and is intended for riding on flat roads with smooth climbs and descents. You can read more about what a planetary hub is here.

A relatively new version is the hub dynamo, which is equipped with an electric generator. Rotational energy is partially converted into electrical energy, which can be directed to the operation of lighting fixtures. Despite such a seemingly variety, each bushing knows its place, and the choice of a part of a different type for the same is extremely limited.

Good technical condition of any part is closely related to its periodic maintenance. For a rotating element of the rear wheel, these are:

• periodic body tightening;
• replacement of bearing balls;
• lubrication of all parts from the inside of the body;
• adjustment of the pads on the brake sleeve.

Dismantling the wheel itself from the frame is usually not difficult, the process of disassembling it and removing the hub body looks much more interesting. True, we do not need to remove the entire part from the spokes, this is necessary when replacing the entire case, and this is a completely different story.

Despite the general unpretentiousness of the axle part of the wheel, during long-term operation without maintenance, it may fail and require repair. Common symptoms that indicate the need to replace or adjust components include:

• the body rattles on the go and staggers (checked with two fingers);
• wheel play when driving;
• poor rolling dynamics;
• crunch of worn bearings.

Looseness and twisting of the rear hub housing can be eliminated by tightening the retaining nuts. With a strong tightening (this also happens), the rotation of the entire wheel is difficult, here you need to loosen the nuts a little. Extraneous sounds and deterioration of roll-off indicate poor quality of bearings or insufficient lubrication.

It is recommended that repairs be done on a bolted sleeve, otherwise there will be little chances to assemble the wheel later, unless you had to constantly deal with disassembly before.

How to disassemble the non-brake hub of a speed bike? Sequencing:

1. Remove the cassette from the axle using a puller and a whip.
2. Open the retaining ring.
3. Remove washers and bearings. The sleeve can be on bulk or industrial bearings. In any case, the main thing is to remember their rightful place and not to lose them. The same goes for the washers.
4. We examine the damage on the bearings: the worn out parts will need to be replaced with new ones suitable for cleaning in a solvent from dirt.
5. The axle is pulled out entirely.
6. The body is cleaned from dirt. Internal cavities are wiped with a soft dry cloth.
7. The parts must be lubricated sequentially when they are installed back. Initially, a little grease is put on the walls of the case. Pay particular attention to the lubrication of the bearings.
8. Installing the stopper and tightening the sleeve with the fastening nuts. It is important not to overtighten the hub to avoid difficulty in turning the wheel.

Once the cassette has been successfully set aside, proceed to disassemble the sleeve. This is done only from the opposite side, usually to the left. Using a 15 mm wrench, unscrew the lock nut, which secures the axle. Remove the stopper, if any.

All small things in the form of rings and washers are laid out on a pre-prepared piece of paper in the correct order. This is extremely important, otherwise it will be easy to get confused later during assembly. The cone is twisted, and, finally, the axis begins to yield. We see bearings right on it.

It is necessary to remove the bearing parts carefully, it is better to pry them off with a thin knitting needle or tweezers.

Wipe each ball with a cloth dipped in acetone or gasoline and fold it to the side. Similarly, we extract the "embankment" or industrial bearings from the other side.

We do not confuse the right and left parts, they are worn in to their side and, when installed, on the contrary, can cause dissonance in the operation of the entire bushing, in particular, backlash. We don’t lose a single ball, otherwise everything will have to be changed! Sometimes, when opening the bushing, next to the axial one you can see "dust" - the balls are completely worn out and need to be replaced. The same goes for partial abrasion.

After removing the axis, we look at its condition. Its working life, as a rule, is commensurate with the "spacing" of the body or replacement of the wheel, but you never know. Even with simple maintenance, it will require cleaning from accumulated dirt.

The inner space of the sleeve is wiped with a dry clean cloth or cotton wool. Too dirty areas can be passed through with gasoline. We wipe the left cone and check the fastening of the right one (from the side of the cassette stars). Once the walls are dry, it's time to apply new grease.

A few recommendations: a chain or any other lubricant will not work for the bushing, it is better to buy a special compound in advance. For bearings, the bucket is actively used, you can use it.It is not worth smearing a thick layer "for ages", because the lubricating composition will be squeezed out and will begin to absorb dirt, due to which all parts will wear out many times faster.

Mounting of sleeve parts: right bearings - wheel axle - cone - left bearings - stopper - washers and rivets - lock nut. The rear hub will most likely need to be adjusted after assembly. This is done only on the left side. Using the same wrench, we slightly loosen the lock nut by 15. Then it is twisted all the way, and the cone is held in a fixed position.

Thus, the backlash of the axle is eliminated, or rather, it is reduced to a minimum. You may have to tinker more than once, the main thing is to achieve synchronous movement of the axle and the entire wheel. A slight twist is still permissible, pulling is fraught with difficult rotation.

And, of course, checking the repair in practice. We test the bike in different speed modes, try to feel if the wheel is loose and how firmly it is fixed. If everything was done correctly, the rides will give comfort and confidence, otherwise, you will have to return to regulation a second time.

Do-it-yourself repair and maintenance of the rear hub is pretty easy! If you intend to replace the entire part, then you need to stop your choice exclusively on the model that is installed on the bike now. When it is not possible to disassemble the bushing, it is better to seek the help of a specialist, otherwise you can damage the part itself.