DX wheels

[Alison]

I bought some DX wheels, on here from a reputable seller a while back, described as super smooth, or words to that effect but as smooth as my cheese grater, too lazy to send them back I kept them, I need to sort them out, but is cheese grater smooth irreparable? Or would a service cure them? Or would it be just be a pointless task? I did try to sort out my hubby's large flange Campy hub years ago to no avail, I'm not sure if I'm just useless at changing bearings or is it harder than I thought?

I wish I could really trust people this is the first time on here or Ebay that things went wring

Al;ison

 

[drystonepaul]

Not good. However, have you had a look at the bearings yet? I'd suggest stripping them down and giving the bearing surfaces and cones a good clean with degreaser. Then inspect them for any pitting etc. If they are smooth, just rebuild everything with new ball bearings and good quality grease. They should be smooth as the proverbials.

It may also be worth replacing the freehub body. These often wear more quickly than the rest of the hub.

If the cones or bearing races are worn or damaged, then you can, with difficulty, get replacement cones. The bearing surface can be separated from the hub body on DX hubs, but new replacements aren't available.
It's usually a better idea in this instance to look for a new hub rather than go for the time consuming and tricky bearing race swap from a donor hub.

If the pitting isn't too bad, then you could try the toothpaste trick, and before you ask this isn't a joke...
Build up the hub with new bearings as before, but instead of grease, use toothpaste.
Go for a couple of rides and the mild abrasive effect of the toothpaste will polish up the bearing surfaces. Then disassemble, rinse out the toothpaste and rebuild with grease.
It'll hopefully give you some minty fresh new hubs.

There's a guide to hub servicing here: --> http://www.drystonepaul.com/maintenance ... r_1993.jpg

 

[jaypee]

Toothpaste trick = genius!

 

[coomber]

Have you tried the seller? Just because its been a while still poor form.

 

[Alison]

Have you tried the seller? Just because its been a while still poor form.

No it's not good form, but the seller has really good feedback and is a respected member, I wasn't sure whether he thought I wasn't a worthy member so didn't care whether I got rubbish wheels or why he should suggest they were good but were crap. I did say to him that they were anything but smooth but never received any response, I did say that I'd try to sort them out, mainly because I'm a lazy B4st4rd and couldn't be bothered to post them back or get into a fight about it I'd still like to try and get them back on the road.

Alison

 

[coomber]

Fair play to you. These things can happen, but if someone came back to me on a sale I would at least offer something to help.

Anyway, hopefully above methods sort them, DX hubs are nice.

 

[hot chilli]

if you were closer i would have a look.
i have used automotive valve grinding paste before.

strip them down
clean everything.
get a set of new bearings.
then like as said above rebuild them with the paste instead of grease.
when i have done this though ive used a drill to spin them rather than riding them.
it works quite well but it the bearing surfaces are really deep pitted then there is not that much that can be done.

i would give them a full clean and check first as it may be they need a good re-grease and new bearings.

 

[FluffyChicken]

First thing first, give accurate feedback on their feedback thread. There is no harm in giving negative feedback if that is what it is, often it's needed to find out what to improve.


Second, strip it to find out if anything is wrong or there is just a bit of dirt in there. Best to get the dirt out now before it does any damage if it hasn't already.

 

[euphras_1]

The toothpaste/abrasive paste approach is worth a try, but only if the pitting hasn´t gone too deep beneath the surface of the cups (this might be the case if the bike/hubs has/have been stored under wet conditions and wasn´t/weren´t ridden that often).

If you have the opportunity to get the hub cups trimmed in a lathe this might be an option if it can be done for cheap. But be careful not to take away too much material.