I see a lot of people online ask how to service a Hadley Hub, so I figured I'd photograph the entire process and post it here for anyone to see how it's done later. That was when I found something odd.
Having spoken with Hadley, they agreed that it might be a bearing that rusted and went bad by my description of the problem.
Last night I took the hub apart. First off, pin spanners that Hadley recommended to remove the nut on one side, do nothing to loosen the cassette side. I bent one set and went to home depot and bought heavy duty's and they bent as well. So I had to use vice grips (don't freak) that I wrapped with some left over inner tube rubber that I wrapped over the free hub side nut to protect it and hold it tight rather than lock it on just to hold it in place in order to crack the outside bolt lose with a 21mm cone wrench on the other side. I did notice one bearing was a little rough, and the other spun smooth. After carefully removing the bearings from the hub, I noted on the rough spinning bearing, a black area of the rubber seal that extended outside the black rubber seal and over the metal edge and I thought it was just excess rubber of the seal hanging over the metal bearing lip. The bearing is bad anyway, so I took an exacto blade to pick at the excess rubber and to lift the seal up to investigate how the bearing got water in it and rusted and realized it wasn't rubber overlapping. Normally good sealed bearings don't do this so I decided to investigate which is where I think I found the answer, however I'm confused as to what I found. See pics below:
I noted that the black parts that I thought were rubber overlapping the metal edge were not rubber, they were chips around the outer edge of the metal bearing on the inside edge lip that buts up against the rubber seal. It was never sealed. In other words, holes. It dawned on me that this was either a defective damaged bearing that was put in unnoticed, or it was damaged when it was installed originally as the rubber seal that seals off the bearing from water getting in, could not cover the chipped edges of the bearing edge which the seal rests and that said, water could easily get in the hub and into the bearing through these chips that the rubber seal on the bearing could not seal as it was designed to do. During regular washing, water got into the bearing and rusted it.
Has anyone seen these chips on bearings or better yet, with a Hadley Hub? I was under the impression they were the best. I inquired about them on this website two years back and bought them because everyone spoke so highly of them and their bomb proof durability. I must say, I'm a little dissatisfied I have to already be servicing them. I've rode Shimano and Azonic's and literally never replaced or lubed the hubs for years and wore out the rubber braking area before the bearings went up, and in those cases, the wheels were so cheap I just bought new ones. But these are disc hub Hadleys and the wheelset did cost me a small fortune so I want to service them and get back up and running again soon.
I'm not sure where to purchase new bearings cheap but they are 61804 LLB DIN 5 ABEC 5. Could this rust have affected my free hub? Does this look like originally installed defect? Or damaged on original install and not noticed?
Having spoken with Hadley, they agreed that it might be a bearing that rusted and went bad by my description of the problem.
Last night I took the hub apart. First off, pin spanners that Hadley recommended to remove the nut on one side, do nothing to loosen the cassette side. I bent one set and went to home depot and bought heavy duty's and they bent as well. So I had to use vice grips (don't freak) that I wrapped with some left over inner tube rubber that I wrapped over the free hub side nut to protect it and hold it tight rather than lock it on just to hold it in place in order to crack the outside bolt lose with a 21mm cone wrench on the other side. I did notice one bearing was a little rough, and the other spun smooth. After carefully removing the bearings from the hub, I noted on the rough spinning bearing, a black area of the rubber seal that extended outside the black rubber seal and over the metal edge and I thought it was just excess rubber of the seal hanging over the metal bearing lip. The bearing is bad anyway, so I took an exacto blade to pick at the excess rubber and to lift the seal up to investigate how the bearing got water in it and rusted and realized it wasn't rubber overlapping. Normally good sealed bearings don't do this so I decided to investigate which is where I think I found the answer, however I'm confused as to what I found. See pics below:
I noted that the black parts that I thought were rubber overlapping the metal edge were not rubber, they were chips around the outer edge of the metal bearing on the inside edge lip that buts up against the rubber seal. It was never sealed. In other words, holes. It dawned on me that this was either a defective damaged bearing that was put in unnoticed, or it was damaged when it was installed originally as the rubber seal that seals off the bearing from water getting in, could not cover the chipped edges of the bearing edge which the seal rests and that said, water could easily get in the hub and into the bearing through these chips that the rubber seal on the bearing could not seal as it was designed to do. During regular washing, water got into the bearing and rusted it.
Has anyone seen these chips on bearings or better yet, with a Hadley Hub? I was under the impression they were the best. I inquired about them on this website two years back and bought them because everyone spoke so highly of them and their bomb proof durability. I must say, I'm a little dissatisfied I have to already be servicing them. I've rode Shimano and Azonic's and literally never replaced or lubed the hubs for years and wore out the rubber braking area before the bearings went up, and in those cases, the wheels were so cheap I just bought new ones. But these are disc hub Hadleys and the wheelset did cost me a small fortune so I want to service them and get back up and running again soon.
I'm not sure where to purchase new bearings cheap but they are 61804 LLB DIN 5 ABEC 5. Could this rust have affected my free hub? Does this look like originally installed defect? Or damaged on original install and not noticed?
hee hee hee
