Cassette play

[EMTBSEAN]

After a ride today I removed the rear wheel for cleaning and discovered that I have play in my cassette, when I say play, It’s about 5mm on the first gear, looking down on the cassette with the teeth facing straight up towards me I am able to move the cassette side to side with around 5mm of movement, I removed the cassette and set about removing the spline/free hub for inspection to find that dirty water has got in, the bearings inside the rear wheel are free and have no signs of water ingress and turn quietly so I’m confident they’re fine and the teeth that the free hub pawls engage with seem fine too, what I’m wanting to know is, is it possible to buy a free hub without having to have a complete new rear hub assembly, apart from trying to save some money I don’t want to take my wheel to a shop and wait for possibly weeks for a repair, if it is possible can someone help me with a link for the correct spline/free hub please, it’s the Sram 12 speed cassette on my bike, any help would be very grateful please

Sean

 

[Rahr85]

Do you know if it is the sram xd driver or shimano freehub? The nx Eagle uses a different freehub from the rest of the line up
And stupid question... But is the play only present with the wheel off the bike? I only ask because this was the first xd driver I had and panicked when I could remove the cassette without any tools

 

[EMTBSEAN]

Good question mate, the quick response is I don’t know, when I removed the cassette the free hub has splines along its full length and the cassette is in many parts, 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears are one piece if I remember correctly and the rest are all separate with a plastic spacing washer in between each of the other rings, and there is approximately 7 splines in total on the hub, the play in the cassette is the same with the wheel on or removed from the bike, if that’s any help

 

[RickBullotta]

After a ride today I removed the rear wheel for cleaning and discovered that I have play in my cassette, when I say play, It’s about 5mm on the first gear, looking down on the cassette with the teeth facing straight up towards me I am able to move the cassette side to side with around 5mm of movement, I removed the cassette and set about removing the spline/free hub for inspection to find that dirty water has got in, the bearings inside the rear wheel are free and have no signs of water ingress and turn quietly so I’m confident they’re fine and the teeth that the free hub pawls engage with seem fine too, what I’m wanting to know is, is it possible to buy a free hub without having to have a complete new rear hub assembly, apart from trying to save some money I don’t want to take my wheel to a shop and wait for possibly weeks for a repair, if it is possible can someone help me with a link for the correct spline/free hub please, it’s the Sram 12 speed cassette on my bike, any help would be very grateful please

Sean

Were the splines OK? No grooves/damage? Also, some hub designs have play when the wheel is off the bike, but have no play when the wheel is mounted and secured with the axle. Can you re-check with the wheel in the bike?

 

[Rahr85]

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0127/9963/9610/files/FREEHUBS_01-21.pdf?v=1611589847

 

[EMTBSEAN]

Were the splines OK? No grooves/damage? Also, some hub designs have play when the wheel is off the bike, but have no play when the wheel is mounted and secured with the axle. Can you re-check with the wheel in the bike?

Yeah it’s movable with the wheel on or off of the bike, no surprisingly there’s no spline damage

 

[EMTBSEAN]

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0127/9963/9610/files/FREEHUBS_01-21.pdf?v=1611589847

Thanks for the link mate, I’ll contact Whyte for a price tomorrow morning, very much appreciate your help buddy ?

 

[Mikerb]

So it is a shimano freehub ( design that is...could be a whole range of OEMS). If your cassette has sideplay first of all I assume it was fully secured? So with the wheel off the bike, and the cassette removed but the freehub still in place, is there sideplay on the freehub? If there is, is that free play also visible on the hub axle? My guess is, either the hub axle adjustment is allowing sideways play...in which case it needs adjusting using the adjuster nut and locknut on the non drive side; or the freehub is moving on the axle, in which case the drive side adjuster nut is not secure. In both cases, it assumes the axle and freehub bearings are all OK.

 

[Mikerb]

Not sure why you want a new freehub! If the freehub shell is not damaged then at worst the freehub may need new bearings which is a £20 job that takes 10 minutes. Much more likely to be axle adjustment either in the hub or the freehub.

 

[EMTBSEAN]

Thanks for your feedback mate, to be honest I just assumed that with the movement of the cassette the free hub bearings were knackered, there is movement in the free hub with the cassette removed but it doesn’t look like a lot of movement it’s only amplified when the cassette is in place, I didn’t know about an adjustment device on the non drive side, how do you go about exposing it and adjusting it, you say about renewing the bearings, would I need special tools to do the job and which bearings would I need please

 

[Mikerb]

Systems vary so maybe a photo or two would help. In general the arrangement is an axle running on 2 bearings in the rear hub. That axle is secured against the bearing with a cone spanner nut and a lock nut on the non drive side. The first thing to check is that the axle has no side play and if so it is taken up by adjusting the cone nut and then locking the outer nut against it.
That axle protrudes on the drive side such that it can take the freehub. The freehub also runs on 2 bearings. In turn the freehub needs to be secured onto the axle such that there is no play. This is often achieved with a single reverse thread nut on the drive side of the axle. The cassette fits over the freehub and is secured with the special nut ...that threads into the end of the freehub and usually torqued to c 40nm.
These arrangement can vary but that is the basis on which everything is secured.

Worn freehub bearings do not usually create side play ...more likely play up and down....but they are easily checked to see if they run freely and smoothly. Main hub bearings can allow a little sideplay on a new bike after some mileage, simply because it is normal to install them and the axle with grease. That grease can take up a couple of mm and when it wears away the axle is left with a little play. Very easy to readjust though.

 

[EMTBSEAN]

That’s plenty to get my head around mate thanks, what I’ll do is, I’ll take my rear wheel off and try and take some video of the play in the cassette and take it from there if that’s ok with you please, it might be a few days until I get back to it as I’m in the middle of a job at home and I’m trying to juggle my bike repair with the job indoors

 

[EMTBSEAN]

My bike is now fixed, it was the free hub that was worn out, I can’t complain as I got 1966 miles out of it before it gave up the ghost, I got in touch with Whyte, told them my bike was less than a year old and they said, “ in our opinion a rider should get at least a year out of a free hub, some people argue this opinion but we don’t “
I gave them my name and address and a brand new free hub landed on my door mat today and my bike is now fixed.
I just wanted to thank you guys for your help and advice as I have learned some more valuable maintenance skills, that’s the thing I love about this forum so many helpful people and Whyte Bikes for the free hub ?

 

[RickBullotta]

My bike is now fixed, it was the free hub that was worn out, I can’t complain as I got 1966 miles out of it before it gave up the ghost, I got in touch with Whyte, told them my bike was less than a year old and they said, “ in our opinion a rider should get at least a year out of a free hub, some people argue this opinion but we don’t “
I gave them my name and address and a brand new free hub landed on my door mat today and my bike is now fixed.
I just wanted to thank you guys for your help and advice as I have learned some more valuable maintenance skills, that’s the thing I love about this forum so many helpful people and Whyte Bikes for the free hub ?

so technically you got a “free free hub”. ;-)

Glad you got it sorted!

 

[EMTBSEAN]

so technically you got a “free free hub”. ;-)

Glad you got it sorted!

Yep ??? Cheers mate

 

[Rahr85]

Free²Hub