Deore XT Hub Overhaul

Here's something special for you bike nerds. I repacked my gold label M-738 XT hub (the one with an aluminum axle) and took some pictures for ya. If you're doing the same thing to a similar hub first you'll have to remove the rubber dustcaps. Use a small thin screwdriver to pry them out like shown:

Don't pry it out between the hub shell and the dustcap, you'll just waste your time and possibly nick the hub. Next you remove one of the outer locknuts. On this particular hub you need a 17mm cone wrench for the locknut, and a 13mm for the cone:

I have no idea why they made you get a 17mm cone wrench for the locknut, but that's the only way to do it on these. Here's the locknut and washer removed, and the cone partially unscrewed:

Normally the cone just comes straight off, but the cones on this hub are a bit different. You might have to turn the cone slightly until it wants to come out, because it will catch on the ball bearings in certain positions. The cones have a long extension that threads deeply onto the axle to avoid putting stress on the aluminum. This extension piece has 10 splines to fit around the ball bearings for assembly, but if the splines aren't aligned with the bearings then it won't slide out. With the axle out of the way though, you can remove the ball bearings:

 

Make sure you have all 20 bearings:

 

Now clean everything. These bearings have a mirror finish when they're clean:

Grease time:

Stick the ball bearings back into the hub after you grease it:

Now reinsert the axle and thread the cone back on until play just disappears:

You might have a little trouble getting the splines to slide around the bearings, but keep turning it little by little and it'll fit. Now thread the locknut and washer back on:

And tighten them together:

Don't force them together with barbaric abandon, the threads on the aluminum axle are much softer than steel. The bearings are adjusted properly when there's a slight amount of play in the axle, so if they're too tight you can easily loosen them by using two 13mm cone wrenches on the cones and unscrewing them.

Do this in small increment's until the adjustment is perfect. The last step is to slide the rubber seals back on:

 

I like to put a little oil between the seal and the hub to reduce friction, but it's not really necessary. It's more important that they're seated evenly, so make sure to push them all the way on, and push from around the axle to seat them in place. That's it. These hubs have a few special details, but they're nothing too fancy after all.

Saddle Repair

Sometimes you get a bike with a rock hard saddle that's completely unrideable after 20 feet. If you can remove the top layer, then there's really nothing stopping you from adding more foam underneath to make it more comfortable.

For this one all I had to do was peel off the top layer from the back side and pull it forward. Sometimes the top is held on with some staples, which can also be removed as long as you can replace them later. Next I found some foam:

And cut some pieces from it:

Now I stuffed them into the top layer before wrestling it back together:

I had to use a tire lever to shove the last bit on, but it worked:

Now rather than riding on a piece of steel with a thin layer of vinyl on top, this saddle can actually be useful. This definitely beats using one of those padded seat covers that slide around a lot.

Gross!

I took apart the bottom bracket on an old Raleigh and this is what I found:

Eww right?

Front Derailleur Installation

The front derailleur is a crude mechanism that shunts the chain from one chainring to the next. These are not difficult at all to install, but they are very sensitive to adjustment. I've heard lots of bikes that have their front derailleurs completely out of adjustment. The chain will constantly rub the derailleur's cage, making a pretty obnoxious sound. If you ignore it, then this happens:

If you ignore it even more, then this happens:

The chain will eventually cut through the cage, rendering the derailleur completely useless (although I suppose the constant clattering noise will diminish once the cage has a hole in it). Anyway, this post is about setting up a front derailleur on your bike. I installed this derailleur on a bike with the chain attached by removing the little screw and bushing at the back of the cage:

Next I slid the chain through the cage and loosely clamped the derailleur to the seat tube:

Try to align the cage plates to run parallel with the chain. The next step is to bolt the cable onto the derailleur for fine tuning:

You'll notice two small screws on the derailleur, sometimes marked H and L. These are the limit screws, and they play a big role in whether the chain will rub the cage or not. To adjust these, first shift the chain into first gear (biggest gear in back, smallest chainring in front):

Now adjust the low limit screw (marked L) so that the inner cage plate is as close to the chain as possible, without actually touching it as you turn the pedals:

Next shift the chain into the highest gear combination (smallest gear in back, biggest front chainring):

Now you can adjust the high limit screw (marked H). You will screw it in until the outer cage plate is close to the chain, but again doesn't touch:

The derailleur's height is important too. If it is too high, the chain will likely rub the cage in the cross chaining gear combinations. It might also be sluggish to shift the chain to the bigger chainring too.

For most modern derailleurs you will want the cage to pass as close as possible to the biggest chainring without touching it, like this setup:

Unfortunately on older derailleurs like this one, this can cause the chain to jam between the inner cage and the teeth on the big gear as you try to shift. To fix this, position the derailleur a few millimeters higher than normal, like this:

If you do reposition the derailleur, then recheck the limit screw adjustments and tighten down the clamp bolt once you're satisfied with it. These adjustments take some practice, and some trial and error. Be patient, adjust in small increments, and eventually you'll find a nice setup.

Note: If you have an indexed double chainring setup, the low limit screw determines the resting position of the front derailleur on the small gear. The shifter determines the position on the bigger gear, but the high limit screw still needs to be adjusted to prevent the chain from overshooting the big ring. You will use the barrel adjuster that's connected to the front derailleur's cable to set the position of the front derailleur in the big gear.
If you have an indexed triple chainring, then the limit screws will control the smallest and biggest chainrings. The shifter will control the middle position, so use the barrel adjuster to position the cage where it doesn't rub the chain while it's on the middle chainring.

Department Store Bike Rebuild

My previous post showed you how to take apart a cheap old American made bike. Now I can show you how to put it back together in better working order than when it first left the store. My first step was reinstalling the fork. I greased the bearing cups, dropped the ball bearing retainers in, and slid the fork in place:

Then I reassembled the top half of the headset and tightened the locknut, again using the mop handle to keep the fork from spinning:

The important thing is to check for play in the fork after tightening the locknut. If you can feel the fork rocking back and forth in the frame, then loosen the locknut and screw the bearing race in until play disappears, then retighten the locknut. Check the fork again to make sure it can turn easily.

Next I greased the front wheel bearings and reassembled the cones:

 

The adjustment is pretty easy to dial in since there are no locknuts on these old Wald hubs. It's important to clean any grease off the threads before screwing the cone back on so that it won't unscrew itself too easily. I also added blue loctite to try to hold the cone in place better (although the best solution is to find some thin locknuts to hold the cones in place).

Now I wanted to work with the bike upside down, so I reinstalled the seatpost and handlebars:

Next I greased the bottom bracket bearings and slid the cranks into the bottom bracket shell:

The hard part is trying to maneuver the cranks through the shell, so don't push the bearing retainers into the cups until the cranks are through in order to give yourself enough clearance. Once it's through you can tighten up the bearing cone until play disappears:

Now replace the keyed washer and tighten up the locknut. Spin the cranks and see if they turn easily without rocking back and forth. If there is play, or the cranks don't turn smoothly then loosen the locknut and turn the cone to solve the problem (tightening the locknut can make the cranks feel harder to turn so adjust for that).

The spokes needed a lot more tension before I would consider the wheels safe to ride on:

Tensioning and truing wheels takes a little practice, but here's some more info on it. I also took the front tire off to patch the inner tube.

After bending the left pedal back into shape and dripping oil inside both of them, I could reinstall the pedals:

Make them nice and tight, and put some oil or grease on the pedal threads first.

The brake levers were a bit too low on the handlebars, so I decided to unwrap the tape and reposition them:

There should be a screw inside that's visible when you pull the lever down, you can use a flat bladed screwdriver to tighten or loosen it in order to move the levers.

Now for my least favorite part:

I only hate doing cables because I always get my hands covered in oil, and used cables don't like to slide into the housings at first since the ends are flattened out by the pinch bolts. I always drip oil into the housings first, then coat the inner wire in oil before threading it through to reduce friction (this makes a big difference to how your brakes and shifters feel when you're done). Once the cable is threaded all the way through the housing you can pull it tight and secure it by tightening the pinch bolt:

 

Repeat for the rest for the rest of the cables:

The front derailleur's housing was too long, so here is how I measured the correct length:

Remember my broken saddle? Well the rails were still intact, and I just happened to have a nicer Schwinn seat with a broken rail. I drilled out the old rivets, then cut and bent the rails to fit the Schwinn saddle:

Now the bike is mostly finished:

All that's left to do is ride it around for a while and adjust the brakes and shifters as needed. It should be a pretty solid bike now, and it didn't cost much money. It only needed some time and a little bit of skill to fix it up.

Edit: The brakes would squeal, and I noticed that the pads were angled away from the rim. I used an adjustable wrench to turn the pads the other way, giving them an inward toe. This immediately quieted the brakes:

You should really only try this on cheap steel brakes. Heat treated aluminum calipers might crack so don't even think about twisting those. Again, be careful and don't overdo this (and if your brakes don't squeal then don't worry about it). You might also have to center the pads around the rim, so loosen the nut behind the part of the frame that the brake attaches to. Then rotate the brake until it's in a good position and retighten the nut. If the whole brake rotates as you tighten the nut, try oiling the threads before screwing the nut back on. That's about all I have left to say. Finally, check your shifters and make sure the limit screws are set properly on the derailleurs. Cheers.

Department Store Bike Teardown

I came across an old department store road bike that needed a little work. It's an "All-Pro" brand, but it's pretty much the same as an old Huffy, Murray, Free Spirit, AMF, etc. Bikes like these aren't valuable, but if they're taken apart and rebuilt properly then they can be pretty decent. This one is in rather rough shape, unfortunately:

It has a broken saddle, damaged left pedal, the headset doesn't turn easily, brakes and shifters don't work, the tires are flat, the spokes have very little tension, and the back wheel is out of true. Sounds like fun. My first order of business is to get rid of the broken seat. First I loosened the seatpost clamp bolt:

Then the nut that holds the saddle clamp onto the post:

The pedals don't spin freely, so I took them off to bend the cage back into shape on the left one and to get some oil inside. These come off with a 14mm wrench (9/16" or a thin adjustable works too):

Time to undo the cables:

That front derailleur cable was routed pretty badly, no wonder it didn't work. I like to remove the inner cables from old bikes to check for frayed wires. This is especially important for brake cables. In this case the cables were fine, but the front brake looked a little weird:

I added another locknut onto the front of the bolt, but then I noticed this:

 
I wonder what caused that? Well here's my solution:

 Moving on to those handlebars. They're positioned so that the drops are horizontal. This usually hurts my wrist so I wanted to adjust the angle. All I had to do was loosen the 9/16" nut on the front of the stem:

Then I just positioned them how I like, and tightened the nut again. The headset bearings needed an overhaul though, so off comes the stem:

If the stem bolt rises up as you unscrew it, but the stem doesn't loosen, just give the bolt a sharp hit with a hammer:

Next I removed the cranks. This is the solid "one piece" type that's secured by a large nut on the left side. Unscrew it clockwise:

Cranks out:

Wheels off:

Time to remove that fork. I like to use a big adjustable wrench on the locknut, then brace the fork legs with a mop handle:

On a nicer bike you would want to protect the paint with some cloth, but on this bike quite frankly who cares. Here's the fork:

Time to do the wheel bearings. The front hub doesn't have locknuts to keep the cones in place, instead the threads are serrated where the cones meet the hub. These come apart with two 9/16" wrenches (or adjustables, they're really not tight at all):

Soaking the bearings in mineral spirits:

Eww:

At least the wheel bearings were still pretty clean. I also noticed this on the crankset:

This bike definitely isn't old enough to use 1" chain, I'm guessing this was a way to cut costs. 

This is as far as I went to take this bike apart. The chain and derailleurs were fine, so I didn't remove them. If you still wanted to, then you can break the chain with a chain tool, and undo these bolts to get the derailleurs out:

 

These kinds of bikes require more work to fix up since it seems like everything will be damaged or out of adjustment on them. On the plus side, you only need adjustable wrenches and a screwdriver to take the entire bike apart. I'll show you how to reassemble these bikes correctly in my next post. Cheers.