My little XTR hub mod...

Hey guys!
I've been fiddling with my newly aquired lathe. One of the things I had planned trying one day was to redo defective/pitted cones in those shimano hubs.
I have a few M900 XTR and M73x XT hubs that share that problem of pitted cones.

So to test whether or not that is possible, I bodged a mount for attaching my dremel to the lathe.
I then took a very pitted cone out of a Parallax STX hub and first ground, then polished the surface.

Here you can see the first run. The pittings are still there:




A few runs later...


... until it starts shining...


Sure looks good. But will it be round enough? I dont have the means to measure that.
I'll have to try it out.

(to be continued, ran out of time..)

Hmmm isnt the race surface case hardened. .... that you just ground off?


Diy case hardening is possible at home.

I did think about that. And I think the part was hardend completely. Not only on the surface.
But I am not 100% sure. I will simply test it out.



The hub body ot that said STX cone has long since been thrown away. So where to test it?
I found this battered XTR hub in my basement.



So I took it apart and gave it a good clean.


Here you can see both cones. XTR to the left. It has some light pitting already.
I swapped the seal over to the stx cone. It seems to fit well.


After greasing, fitting and adjusting the hub feels quite good. Seems the stx cone came out round enough the be used again.


BUT. I don't like the looks. The seal is in but the stx cone misses that little washer that covers the seal.

This is how it should look like:


Hmmm...


I did not even know yet, that washer is detachable..


But it would not fit the stx cone. Maybe I should make a washer of my own?
One hour later:




Does look good, somehow...
Don't you think?

Nice!

Is there any play in the bearings on account of the metal lost from the cones?

Could have a nice little sideline in hub refurbs there!

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Nice one! Interested to see the outcome.

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Big 'Q' is ... how long will that re-faced/machined bearing surface remain serviceable for ...

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Don't see how you managed to get the curve with that set up, but you seem to have done it. Well done!

How could anyone actually replicate it anyway? :?

Hope it works well

Mike

Randsworthrouleur: you can make for the lost material by screwing the cone a bit further into the hub. So there is not more play. The hubs bearings are adjustable after all. To be 100% correct: If you were to hone out the original cones, you would loose about 1mm of axle length.

K-rod: Me, too!

Mike Muz: My initial idea of this thread was about to show that its possible to use cheap and easy available cones (that are mot necessarally damaged) out of those ugly (imho) Parallax hubs to repair other (nicer?) Shimano hubs. But with the issue of getting that gap instead of a nice seal.
But when I got that lathe, things started to get a tad bit out of control...

You are right about the replication thou. If you dont have a lace or similar device, you wont be able to do it.

Noone wants to comment on the nice little brass ring?

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Thias - its actually called a 'lathe'.

And ... that brass ring makes the whole thing: it's the shazmatt!!

Don't know what "shazmatt" means, but google gave me this:


which is funny, because the picture actually shows my face when I got the lathe running in my basement last week. :roll: