How do I Service XT PD M730 and M732 Hubs???

Roger_P

Devout Dirtbag
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I have these hubs on my 92 Clockwork and after this winter they are probably in need of a service.

What equipment do I need?

How do I do it?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance

Roger
 
You'll need a 13mm and 17mm cone spanners for the front and 15mm and 17mm for the rear.
For the front, pick a side and undo the lock nut with the 17mm cone spanner while stopping the axle rotating with the 13mm spanner on the cone near to the bearing seals. These might be pretty tight and they'll have a standard thread.
Take the nuts, spacers and cones off the axle and slide it out of the hub.
All the bearings will fall out and roll under your fridge at this point.
Don't worry as you'll be replacing these anyway. 9 bearings each side, and they are quarter inch in size.
Degrease everything, clean and check the bearing surfaces for any pitting of grooves. They should be nice and smooth and shiney.

Reassemble by sticking the bearings back in with some quality grease, and re-inserting the axle. Put the cone, washers and lock nut back on.
Then you'll need your cone spanners to tighten the lock-nut down without over tightening the cone onto the bearings.
This is the tricky bit.
It should run nice an smooth without any play in the bearings (too loose) or any stiffness (too tight). Getting the balance right can be tricky, and it often helps to put the wheel back into the bike and tighten the skewers up to get the bearings perfect.

For the rear wheel do the same, but start on the non drive side using a combination of 15mm and 17mm cone spanners.
If you want to remove the cassette body you'll need a 10mm allen key, once you have removed the axle.

Apologies for any innaccuracies as I've been watching the new girl on Countdown while typing this.

Just had a rethink: The front bearings might be 3/16ths of an inch. Can't remember without stripping my hubs down.
 
I would second all of that advice but try both sides of the hub first, sometimes due to wear etc the cone and locknut on one side are more inclined to move than the other.

As for PD M737, do you mean SPD's, if so then use the TLPD (the grey plastic thing) to remove the axle, then using a 8mm and a 10mm spanner loosen the bolts on the end of the axle, be very careful dismantling as the bearings are teeny tiny. Once cleaned up then lightly grease and reassmble the axle, bearing preload is incredibly hard to judge but I usually tighten them until they are slightly too tight and then turn the cone 1/2 turn back. Then half fill the body of the pedal with grease and refit the axle.
Once done (grease will ooze out of the plastic collar) I put a cut off 6mm allen key in a drill and spin the axle in each direction for about 15 secs. Lots of grese come out but atleast this way you know it is all properly greased in there and the frist time you go for a ride the pedals don't pour grease all over your cranks.
 
I serviced my STX hubs last weekend, and was surprised how easy it was. Just remember which order everything goes in!

You may want to replace the cones if they are worn - mine looked ok but I changed them as a precaution. SJS Cycles have loads of old hub spares :D
 
On the pedals try a solvent wash, ie use wd-40/white spirit etc to remove the old grease, let them dry, and then repack with grease. Or even dispense with the solvent purge and just add more grease alowing the old grease to be expunged. That will often be sufficient to make them spin properly again, because the bearings are tiny and a pain to work with: avoid doing so if possible. I also thought you need a special socket thingy to adjust the cone and locknut on spd pedal bearings but i could be wrong.

If you're real cheapo you can get often get away with 13/15mm cone spanner for the cones and use an adjustable spanner, a regular spanner of the appropriate size or even a socket on the locknuts. In fact I find it to be easier to do this, rather than using two cone spanners.
 
drystonepaul":2bzi2i9d said:
All the bearings will fall out and roll under your fridge at this point.
Don't worry as you'll be replacing these anyway.

Apologies for any innaccuracies as I've been watching the new girl on Countdown while typing this.

LMAO in my house it is the dishwasher :LOL:

now when is countdown on, this I have to see......
 
ernestrome":3vd3fj5n said:
I also thought you need a special socket thingy to adjust the cone and locknut on spd pedal bearings but i could be wrong.

You are probably not wrong.

My workshop is full of franken-tools cobbled together to take stuff apart and rebuild it! :LOL:

The worst culprit is a 3' length of angle iron with a 30mm socket welded to the end. Lets just say that when I was trying to undo the hub on a car I thought "Hey, there are 250 horses under the bonnet waiting to help!" :oops:
 
ernestrome":zawgc1ko said:
I also thought you need a special socket thingy to adjust the cone and locknut on spd pedal bearings but i could be wrong.
Only on those pedals that don't use a cartridge axle. On cartridge-axle pedals, you use the splined tool to extract the cartridge, and that gives you access to the cone and locknut with normal tools.

If you're real cheapo you can get often get away with 13/15mm cone spanner for the cones and use an adjustable spanner, a regular spanner of the appropriate size or even a socket on the locknuts. In fact I find it to be easier to do this, rather than using two cone spanners.
The M730/732 hubs (and many others) need two cone spanners. The adjacent spacers and shaped locknut would get in the way of a normal spanner.
 
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