Wheel Bearings

[sweety]

I got a set of wheels off here a few months back but never got around to stripping out & regreasing the bearings Went for a quick spin on the bike today & noticed a strange ping ping coming off the front wheel & when I stripped the bearings I found 2 had bits broken off & slight pitting to the XT hub
Is there any way of cleaning up the pitting :?: There was 10 bearings fitted on both sides but there is space for a 11th to be added & was wondering if I should add a 11th or just stick with the 10 :?

 

[hydorah]

Hey sweety just run the 10 for sure as you don't want the bearing excessivley crammed in or you will have excessive friction/wear

Where is the pitting? Is on the bearing surfaces inside the hub?

Or on the cones on the spindle?

What was broken was it the bearing balls themselves?

I reckon some pics would help

 

[sweety]

Theres a little pitting on the inside of the hub which looks a bit like rust spider leg effect you get under paint but it looked as if rust had developed in the pits So i'm going to dry running a die grinder lightly over the top of the pits to hopefully smooth things out a bit :roll:
Yes the 2 bearings had cracked loosing their top layer but I can't find the bits in the hub so I think they might have been like this for some time & when I nipped up the cones a touch to take out the play they have shown up the prob which i'm glad of now

 

[mikee]

i have a pair of xt hubs that went like this
knackered i'm sorry to say

 

[sweety]

Thats just my luck :cry: :cry: only bought the wheels because I switched from suntour to shimano & my rear hub died :roll:

 

[sweety]

Forgot to ask whats the best type of grease to use as i've packed the bearings with lithium base genral perpose grease for the minute

 

[hydorah]

Forgot to ask whats the best type of grease to use as i've packed the bearings with lithium base genral perpose grease for the minute

I reckon that's alright to use for hub bearings and just about anything else

Quite expensive though?

I use traditional LM grease for everything never had a any troubles

It's only around a fiver for 500g of the stuff

 

[JamesM]

You can't fix pitting in the hub races so ultimately it means the beginning of the end for those hubs. However you can get new ball bearings for a couple of quid from your LBS and you maybe able to get new cones too. If they are on there way out you may aswell run them into the ground. So rebuild them with new ball bearings (don't bother with new cones) use loads of grease and I bet they will go for a couple of thousand miles more.

My commuter bike has modern deore hubs that have done over 10k miles. I was a bit lazy servicing them and the last time I took them apart I'd left them a bit too long, there was loads of pitting on the hub races and the cones front and rear. I chucked them back together with loads of grease and thought I'll order some new hubs and re-build the wheels. That was a year ago (3k+ miles) and they are still going along just fine.

If you rarely take the wheels of your bike it's worth loosening the skewers and rotating the axels through 90 degrees every few rides otherwise the majority of the load (weight) is allways running on the same part of the cone and it wears out prematurely.

 

[silverclaws]

I believe there was an old trick for repairing races, the use of rubbing compound, toothpaste or similar fine abrasive mixed in with the grease and just run the wheel for a bit so the problem could be ground out. My old xt hubs came pitted from new, they ran for about fifteen years with no problems after I had ground in the bearings in what is called bedding in.

 

[sweety]

Thanks guy's you have just picked me up it's only on one side of the hub so am going to run the hub till it just can't take any more. I will service them often now & get some new bearings as the ones i've got in are pretty good but not new.