HELP ! Loose bearing hub driving me insane.

[MADJEZ]

Hopefully someone can tell me where I'm going wrong and call me a numpty.

I have a Carrera Subway (I’m not proud of it !), about 7 years old. It has loose bearing hubs,
I took them apart to clean/regrease and I just can’t get it to go back together properly.
When I first stripped the bearings out they were sitting in Groove 2 and there was at least one ball missing making it wobbly. When I tried putting it together with 9 balls and lots of grease did the cones up fine. First time I rode it balls started to jump out from under the cone into Groove 1.
I got a cage bearing as I couldn’t find loose balls locally, the cage happens to fit perfectly in
Groove 1 ! Tho the cone doesn’t seem wide enough to hold it in. I was going to pull the balls out
so I have enough loose ones.

Anyone got any tips or a diagram (hub is unbranded Halfords special).

In my defence, I sold it a couple of years ago to some W***er who mucked me about. I took it back but noticed the hubs were very loose (he’d taken everything apart !). So I never saw the hubs with everything correct before I sold it. Has he put the wrong size balls back in (they are 1/4 ") or something stupid like that ??

 

[Rampage]

Most likely your balls are too small.

 

[drystonepaul]

Re:

Is that a picture of the actual hub?

'Groove 2' is the bearing race and 'groove 1' is where a seal should sit.
Hubs like this will most commonly take 1/4 inch bearings, and normally nine bearings each side.

If the bearings are able to move past the cones then it suggests that the wrong cones are installed.

One theory could be the fact that some front hubs use smaller 3/16th size bearing (10 each side) and therefore also use a slightly different cone.
If the hubs have been stripped and rebuilt incorrectly then that could be causing the issues you are describing.

Caged bearings don't actually hold the bearings in place, they are only used to speed up assembly during manufacture. They are also rarely used in higher quality hubs as you lose one bearing to make up for the presence of the cage.
It's better to have the extra bearing though for better load distribution and better wear characteristics.