1x conversion gears skipping

I bought a genesis longitude off ebay earlier this year which had been converted to 1x. Once i'd put it together I found the gears skipped under any pressure, not bad shifting but as if the chainrings/casette/chain were worn - but they're not. So I got my fixmybike voucher and took it to a guy local to my work today who works out of his garage. He has not been able to fix the problem but seems to think it's the fact the bike is supposed to be a 2x10 not a 1x10 that's messing up the chainline. Theres a weird spacer between the DS BB shell and the BB itself which I don't really understand.

I'll add some photos off my phone of everything, but I'm veeery open to ideas on how to fix this that aren't spending a load of money reverting back to 2x10.

Something's worn or the chain is too long. Your cassette and derailleur don't know how many chainrings you've got and you would expect them to work at either extreme end of the cassette in either chainring of a 2x set up so chainline is a non issue

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yeah i didn't get the 1x as a reason, Phildas worded it better than my brain could. How about the freehub body, pawls might be gummed up? Mine are currently and I'm getting the occasional slip.

Cheers. I'll venture my chain may be too long as all the other bits seem in pretty decent fettle. How's the best way to check?

Thanks, off to google “pawls”

Is mech hanger straight?

As far as I know, but I’ll check it later.

How about the freehub body, pawls might be gummed up?

This would be my bet, unless the chain or the cassette is really gone. Chain too long only would be bad in the small cog, bad chain line it's only appreciable in one or the other extreme. Wearing out all cogs of the cassette it's quite an achievement too, you only get a few gears slipping at the beginning.
It could also be that the derailleur is not mounted in the right stop in the hanger.

He has not been able to fix the problem but seems to think it's the fact the bike is supposed to be a 2x10 not a 1x10 that's messing up the chainline. Theres a weird spacer between the DS BB shell and the BB itself which I don't really understand.

The bb spacer is normal. 1 driveside spacers for a 73mm shell (which I presume is what you have), 2 driveside and 1 on nds for 68mm shell is the typical external bb set up.

If your lbs mech didn’t know this, don’t go back there.

If your lbs mech didn’t know this, don’t go back there.

Aye, nice guy but as I looked round his garage I realised he just had a (much) swankier version of my home set-up. Probably fine for indexing gears, replacing parts. But not really the experience to sort more complex problems.

Anyway, current areas of investigation:

1. Chain length
   
2. "It could also be that the derailleur is not mounted in the right stop in the hanger." How would I check this?
   
3. Gummy pawls. I now know what a pawl is, but fuck me if I know how to get to it and un-gum it. Not even sure If I have the tools. Any advice from the more mecahnically minded on here?
   
   
   
   

Was this chain used with this cassette already? If they're both old parts that weren't used together they won't mess nicely when you use them. Worn parts suck.

How did you size the chain?

Have you actually indexed the gears properly? Does it shift up and down the block into all the gears with each click of the shifter? If the indexing is off, when you've changed into a gear it won't be quite "on it" and can skip or make more noise than necessary. (straighten hanger before indexing if you have access to the tool to do so)

Gummy pawls would usually mean the whole lot spins free in both directions, not just when coasting. This is less likely as it tends to be perma freewheel not just skipping. Was the wheel working before it was installed?

Also, chainline is only really relevant on a single-speed/fixed. If you have a cassette, the chain is meant to be on an angle in all but the middle gear (and even then not always). So talking about chainline when using a cassette doesn't make sense to me other than maybe saying "at the extremities of the cassette the chainline is causing more noise and wear than I'd like because I'm running a stupid 1x setup".

I think your chain length is probably fine now that you've posted pictures. Looks to still have a decent amount of tension even in the small cog.

You know on the derailleur hanger there's a little Tooth-shape-thingy (technical term), there is a ring around the bolt on the derailleur which has a corresponding Sticky-outy-bit which needs to go above the tooth part so that it butts up against it when trying to rotate

You'll probably need to get the cassette off and then remove the freehub body. There's a different method of doing this for different wheels so you'd need to look that up. Once you have it off, you'll see the pawls and give them a little push to see how easily they move and whether they spring back up quickly and easily. Be careful because they're only lightly held in and they can ping across the room to never be found again. (try all the other things first)

It could also be your B screw is wound too far out. This would put the jockey wheels too far away from the cassette and allow the chain to move between gears.
Put it in the largest cog and see what the gap is like to the top jockey wheel

Also does it seem to skip all the time or just at a certain spot in the rotation? It could be a shitty chain join if it's something going click click click in roughly the same spots each lap of the cassette.

If the chain is skipping over teeth on the cassette, you can usually see where, on the top of the tooth profile, that it's skipping.

Right, I tightened up the B-Screw and the whole casette was skipping like crazy, so using unparalleled levels of logic, I wound it right out and, hey presto, all the skipping has stopped. Dunno what that was all about. There's still a weird click at a regular intervals. Is that a dodgy link?

Nice. Is the click when in-gear, or when changing gear?

Winner. This is what I meant sorry. I said maybe it's wound too far out but what I meant was maybe it was wound too far in. If it's too far screwed in it pushes the derailleur away from the cassette and leaves room for slop. When it's wound out, the derailleur moves up tight to the cassette and shifting gets more precise. Just be careful that it's not too far out as then when shifting several cogs at a time, the jockey wheel can contact the cassette or get close enough that the chain jams

Is the click when in-gear, or when changing gear?

In gear. Changing is slightly clunky at points, so could use some fettling.