Creaking Real Wheel On Beach Cruiser Bike :(

[straightbangin]

Ok all done. I'm glad I bought tire levers. Its much easier to get a tire off with them vs muscling it off on your own.

I put the new rim and tire on and took apart the old one. It was easy to do without any specialized tools, just my adjustable wrench. It contained three barring rings. One ring was in tact, one has 2 balls that came out of it and the other one had one ball that came out of it. So all that noise seems to have been three loose balls lol. It sounded so loud I thought there were other loose pieces in it. I also found tons of hair ( I have long thick hair so it gets all over but can't believe it got INSIDE the hub. Also lots of grease ( to be expected ) which reminded me I need to check Home Depot for Lava soap since Target didn't have anything more than frufru soap and a few bars of irish spring and crap. Nothing " tool time " worth. God I'm such a tom boy LOL. Its funny because when I tell guys I work on my own bikes, scooter and jetski they look shocked. I put out my hand and say " you don't see long nails here do you ? I'm not afraid to get dirty " Besides if I had long nails or polish they would be broken or the polish would be worn off by noon. I do like to put glitter nail polish on sometimes because its easy to patch more on (the glitter kinda blends together ) Ok too much coffee def made this post go from bike to girly crap. Sorry

Now... here is the question ( I think i got this from my grandfather who raised me ) but.. I like to save spare parts, nuts bolts, etc.. I have highly organized kits for this and three small bins for bike, scooter and jetski parts. I was thinking of taking some spokes off the old rim for spares in case I damage some but I'm thinking of keeping the whole rim in storage since its totally straight. I wiped off the internal greasy parts and tossed into a ziplock too. Is it possible to buy just the ball baring rings to put it back together should I need to in the future for a bike or this one when its not under warranty anymore? Im assuming it is but not sure if its hard to match up the correct size or if you just do a simple measurement of it.

[nfmisso]

(11-05-2014, 02:13 PM)straightbangin Wrote:  ... here is the question ...... Is it possible to buy just the ball baring rings to put it back together should I need to in the future for a bike or this one when its not under warranty anymore? .......

Hi;

Most of us use loose balls instead of caged balls. The loose balls just need to be the same diameter, and usually an additional ball. Thus; if you have a cage with ten ¼" diameter balls, you'd use eleven ¼" balls and no cage. The cage is there to make manufacturing easier, it does not improve the bearing performance for a bike application (low speed, moderate load). An additional ball will reduce the stress levels in the system. Cages can get damaged during the assembly of the wheel, leading to premature failure, like you experienced.

I buy balls from Amazon, any industrial supply has them too. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=node%3D3403201&field-keywords=ball+bearings&rh=n%3A3403201%2Ck%3Aball+bearings

If you don't have calipers, you should get some. I have these: http://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-digital-caliper-47257.html
they often go on sale for around $10-

I would suggest you rebuild your old wheel with loose bearings, and keep at as a spare. Your new wheel with caged bearings may fail in the same manner, the one you rebuild with loose will not..... After you gain a confidence in your rebuild skills, you may want to rebuild the new wheel with loose balls too.

[straightbangin]

Interesting. Thanks.

With the loose balls do you just grease the cup and set them in the grease in a ring then slide the spindle in to them to keep them in place?

My new wheel came all together and ready to pop on so won't rebuild that one but I'm interested in doing it the next time I need to change the rear hub.

[nfmisso]

(11-05-2014, 07:51 PM)straightbangin Wrote:  ...With the loose balls do you just grease the cup and set them in the grease in a ring then slide the spindle in to them to keep them in place? .....

Basically yes. I use boat trailer wheel bearing grease for all my bike applications. I use a plastic knife to apply the grease like buttering a roll, then place the individual balls with a plastic tweezers into the grease and pushed against the cup, then add another thin layer of grease on top. Push the spindle in, repeat on the other side, finger tighten the cone, then wipe of excess. Last adjust and lock down the cones.

[straightbangin]

Nice. Thanks!

It was great to ride my beach crusier in silence this morning.

Now just waiting for bottom bracket parts to come in for my mountain bike.

Thanks for your help guys