E-thirteen rear hub bearing replacement….anyone done it yet?

[Jedipip]

Rear bearings are worn and rumbling with a little play, so I will be swapping them out. But…..knocking them out isn’t straight forward! Anyone ever done it? What did you use to push the axle through? Which way did you go?

It’s the V40 as in the pics and fitted to a 2020 Pro Race. 26L denotes the week and year of manufacture. Not sure what FC means.

Bearings are 6804, I have all the gear for pushing bearings in and out. But the axle ‘sleeve’ looks like it needs a little know-how before it gets touched with some tools.

.

 

[steve_sordy]

What ever you do to dismantle your e-13 hub, pay very special attention to replacing the seals when reassembling. In my sad experience it is the seal design that lets down e-13 hubs.

 

[Jedipip]

Yeah there’s one very large one that needs TLC to make sure it’s in place. The rest are obvious and clearly don’t work THAT well. My bearings have done nearly 4000 miles though so it’s not really a warranty job. I’ve got an email question logged with The Hive/e-Thirteen. I just need to know the right way to dismantle and get those bearings out. Otherwise the hub could be FUBAR.

 

[steve_sordy]

4000 miles! WOW!
I had three e13 TRS+ rear hubs that failed after 2100 miles, all failed because of the seals at similar mileages. All under warranty. I sold the bike and told the new owner, but the fourth hub was a complete replacement from the spokes inwards. That one must have failed too, because he had his wheel rebuilt with a different make of hub after about 5 months.

 

[Mikerb]

It usually becomes more obvious if you study the set up on both sides of the hub with the cassette/freehub removed and the whell out of the bike. Post some pics

 

[Jedipip]

It usually becomes more obvious if you study the set up on both sides of the hub with the cassette/freehub removed and the whell out of the bike. Post some pics

yeah that’s what I was hoping for too! Both bearings are clearly visible as is the axle that runs between them. There’s nothing else to see, it’s all flush in there. A gentle tap on the shaft gave nothing away in either direction. It turns with the bearings and is only properly stuck to the brake/non-drive side inner bearing.

Hence a tiny bit of know-how can save me a world of trouble. They are all repacked with grease and grumbly with a little play, so it’s not an emergency.

I’ll post pics as soon as I set about it proper with the new bearings, just need that heads up of which way to go with removal.

 

[Mikerb]

this may help

How to Replace TRS/LG1 race rear hub bearings - e*thirteen (bythehive.com)

 

[Jedipip]

this may help

How to Replace TRS/LG1 race rear hub bearings - e*thirteen (bythehive.com)

It kind of does, apart from the bearing press tool isn’t available (for pushing the spacer) and that black spacer is flush with both bearings, unlike in the pic.

 

[Mikerb]

Having a spacer between the bearings is pretty normal. All hubs have their own bearing press tools but since any bearing you remove is going to be scrap you need not be concerned with damaging it and the easiest way to remove them is to drift them out. Where there is a spacer between the bearings it needs to be pushed to one side a little to let a drift get access to the bearing race to tap it out ( same for example on the shimano HG freehub when you have to replace bearings on that). From what I can see the non drive side bearing can be tapped in and the drive side bearing pulled into place with the axle..................you have to improvise!! Some threaded bar and a selection of thick washers to act as drifts is a cheap solution in most circumstances.Using the inner race to drift out bearings is fine, obviously when pressing in new bearings you want to do so against the outer race.

 

[Torx]

It kind of does, apart from the bearing press tool isn’t available (for pushing the spacer) and that black spacer is flush with both bearings, unlike in the pic.

Hello there Jedipip, did you get an answer on this? I have the same question but can’t find it anywhere!

 

[Jedipip]

Hello there Jedipip, did you get an answer on this? I have the same question but can’t find it anywhere!

sorted it! Bought a new e*spec microspline freehub kit. It was about £90. This ended up being not much more than a set of all the bearings needed to swap them out! I’m yet to tackle the old free hub bearings - I’ve gone with the argument the bike industry wants ‘built in redundancy’

only saving grace is they do 4-5 thousand miles, u like new Shimano free hubs that seem to eat themselves in 1000 miles.

 

[Torx]

Cheers for the reply!
So you didn’t replace the bearings in the main hub?

My free hub bearings seem to run ok, it’s the main hub that are the problem, but it seems impossible to remove the bearings without destroying the hub in the process..

 

[Jedipip]

Torx
The hub bearings were easy to do once you know the drive side bearing comes out last as it sits against a stop. There’s a link to the process in the thread above.