Bent rear axle?

Afternoon all. Please bear with me.

Been building my wheels for the new fixed gear with second-hand (Maillard, yes shit I know) hubs and second-hand Mavic rims (from separate sources). Front one first, laced it up, everything was pretty much spot on, a bit of tweaking and it's as steady as Eddie.

Next up was the rear, laced it up 3 times to find a complete and utter banana-stylee rim. I just kept bashing my head against a wall thinking that I'd laced it up wrong. On the 4th attempt I ignored all literature regarding lacing, and just tensioned the spokes so they all made a lovely G flat ping when plucked. This made the rim slightly better, but at least I could slot it into the frame now without the rim bashing the stays!

This time I noticed the flanges were rotating 'pissed' when the wheel was spun, and if I looked at the non-drive side on the hub body you could just about see a wobble as well, although not as pronounced as the flange edge.

SO. The question is, why would the hub be pissed?? Could it be a simple case of a bent axle, or is it more likely to be something slightly more serious.

Thanks in advance!
Sam

with a bent axle the hub usually binds at one point or is harder to turn. if the flange is bent or axle for that matter (and it's just for a beater) you could try bending it into shape, not the best but you get the drift.

Hadn't noticed any difficulty in the hub binding, but then again I wasn't looking for it. I'll give it another spin tonight.

Cheers, Dale.

also, the way i re-bent an axle was to use two nuts side by side (a binding nut may also give-away a bent axle., this give you something to grab onto without destroying the threads ;)

Ahh. That's a point. I did take the axle out last night, but my old eyes aint what they used to be, i.e. I couldn't tell if it looked straight or pissed!

When I put it all back together I moved the non-drive side cone a little bit further down the axle as the amount of threads showing on either side of the hub wasn't quite even. I could only budge it one or two threads before it would turn no more, to basically where the axle entered the hub body.

And re: bending the hub flange. It's not a left to right wobble (and therefore bendable), it's up and down.

Sam Ahh. That's a point. I did take the axle out last night, but my old eyes aint what they used to be, i.e. I couldn't tell if it looked straight or pissed!

When I put it all back together I moved the non-drive side cone a little bit further down the axle as the amount of threads showing on either side of the hub wasn't quite even. I could only budge it one or two threads before it would turn no more, to basically where the axle entered the hub body.

And re: bending the hub flange. It's not a left to right wobble (and therefore bendable), it's up and down.

If you want to check if the axel is bent remove it and find a good flat surface, an odd bit of laminate flooring or kitchen work surface should be good, and role the axle on that with your finger. You can see / feel if it is bent even very slightly with this method.

Good luck.

depends if it is an old axle they have a raised ring 2/3 on one-side ;)

True but it you will still beable to see any deflection easier rolling it on a flat surface than just holding it up and looking at it.

I wish I'd thought of that last night. Cheers Tommy.

And fortunately there's no raised ring.

BUMP! I have two wheels with bent axles at the moment.

First is a Maillard Rear Hub (5-speed) quick release - 1980s
second is a Normandy Fixed hub (120mm) bolt-on. also 1980s

I can hopefully get replacements from sjs - but would they be 10x1 9x1mm. or some imperial size...?

Do you know any other good sources of cones / axles online?

I once stumbled across a website for a british small engineering firm that had a lot of replacement hub parts... but I've lost the link.

And if anyone has a broken hub lying around i will happily relieve you of a matching axle!

I can figure this out threading myself given some time, but thought some old-hands might know off the top of their head before I disassemble them and get all greasy. and suppliers are always good.

Cheers. P

You guys... don't know jack!

Good sources of axles and cones online?

Threading for Normandy and Maillard hubs?

Can I haz?

Sounds like a Skully question to me

Or fruitboots... or retro di corsa... or smallbrownbike... or Sam?

If you don't have any thread gauges take an axel with a thread which you know is metric and see if they are the same by using the same method you would with a thread gauge.

Use some calipers for the diameter.

Some of my favorite thread links

http://www.gewinde-normen.de/en/index.html

http://www.gewinde-normen.de/en/iso-fine-thread.html

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_metric_screw_thread[/ame]

Or fruitboots... or retro di corsa... or smallbrownbike... or Sam?

Sorry Prav, I threw away the old axle and used a dodgy cheap 10mm one from Halfords (complete with cones and bearings).