Cycling UK Forum

Hi

i haven't posted on here for a while, but am in need of a bit of advice and thought who better to consult but the font of all cycling knowledge. The CTC (AS WAS) now Cycling UK of course.

Anyway I have eventually decided that the rough and rattling freehub on my bike needs some care and attention. It is a campag Centaur about 25 years old. It has a 17mm hollow axel. I have got the outer bearing out and cleaned everything up, there were not many of the outer bearings left intact and those that remain are now too small to fit in the bearing carrier.

Most replacements I have looked at on line have been foe cartridge bearings but I'm not sure that these will fit. So as all the other bits of the bearing seem ok my question to you is, does anyone out there know what size the bearings are?? so I can get some loose bearings and try putting it back together.

there are four bearings in a campag rear hub; two in the freewheel body and two in the hub body. The former are always cartridge bearings and the latter are either cartridge bearings or cup and cone bearings.

The cartridge bearings in the freewheel body are normally marked on the dust seals with a four or five digit number plus a suffix so for example 6***-2RS or something. If you are seeing loose balls in the freewheel body bearings the bearings need to be replaced with new; they are not meant to be rebuilt.

Unfortunately once the bearing has disintegrated getting the remains out isn't easy. Typically the outer bearing is a push-fit and the inner one is retained by a snap ring.

Sometimes you can temporarily reassemble the outer bearing and drive it out using a straight drift. However if this doesn't work you may need to use a cranked drift on the outer part. Either way it isn't easy; the official campag repair is to fit a new freewheel body, which comes with new bearings.

cheers

Centaur was originally an MTB model in the early 1990s. The name was next used from the early 2000s to rename Daytona because of name ownership issues. The Campag spare parts list for 2002 (pages 50 and 51) shows part number HB-RE023 https://www.campagnolo.com/media/files/ ... o_2002.pdf . These are still available in sets of 4 to fit front and rear from places such as https://www.totalcycling.com/en/Campagn ... 21893.aspx or individually from https://thecycleclinic.co.uk/products/c ... -axle-hubs Putting the part number into Google shows several sources.

Sorry - that's hub bearings not freehub bearings. I will leave the post because the link to the spares listing may be of use.

Said it before, and I'll repeat.
It's cheaper to buy a whole new hub - Record is the only one you can now - and harvest all the bits and repair yours.

I did this with a pair of Record hubs, sold the shells and the QRs and kept all the bearings, seals, cups and cones, and the freewheel body.
The hubs are getting few and far between nowadays though.
Found these as a pair but not as cheap as they once were. Shop around, I'm sure they are cheaper.

https://www.totalcycling.com/en/Campagn ... 18904.aspx

Usually it's only the outer freehub bearing that goes as it's the one most exposed to water. The ones I have done haven't been too bad, removing the old bearing is the difficult bit. The bearing is a stock one from my local factor, around £7 for an SKF or NSK last time I did it.

Cranky2 wrote:IMG_20210118_190755.jpg

1/8 sounds far too big,especially looking at your pic, 5/32 seems more likely

foxyrider wrote:

Cranky2 wrote:IMG_20210118_190755.jpg

1/8 sounds far too big,especially looking at your pic, 5/32 seems more likely

However, the ball bearing size is really only of academic interest if it is a cartridge bearing as it cannot easily be reassembled with new balls. Either by measuring the inner and outer diameters, or by finding the bearing code from the seal, the appropriate replacement cartidge can be found and ordered. It looks like the outer race might be stuck in the freehub though?

alexnharvey wrote:However, the ball bearing size is really only of academic interest if it is a cartridge bearing as it cannot easily be reassembled with new balls. Either by measuring the inner and outer diameters, or by finding the bearing code from the seal, the appropriate replacement cartidge can be found and ordered. It looks like the outer race might be stuck in the freehub though?

I agree. You need to replace the entire bearing - it's not readily possible to re-assamble a factory cartridge bearing.

foxyrider wrote:

Cranky2 wrote:IMG_20210118_190755.jpg

1/8 sounds far too big,especially looking at your pic, 5/32 seems more likely

eh? 5/32" is larger than 1/8"....

Cranky2 wrote:...….These are the bits, as you can see they are in good nick apart from the bearings…..

good nick? They definitely won't be, not if they have ended up like that. You will need a new cartridge bearing. You can partially reassemble the bearing (eg with as few as three balls and no retainer) and this is useful because it might allow you to drive the old parts out more easily, but that is all.

The correct bearing number will be marked on the seal as I described earlier.

cheers

It's not and never was a cartridge bearing. It is at least 25 years old. It has an inner ring with a groove in it and a cage that the bearings sit in. There is also a groove on the inner face of the freehub body. The bearings sit in the cage and run around the two grooves.

I measured the remaining bearings and they are 3/32 inch but they pass easily through the holes in the cage. As the rest of the bearings seem to have disintergrated I am thinking the remaining ones might be a bit worn.

Is there anyone out there has done this repair and knows the size of the bearings?

Cranky2 wrote:It's not and never was a cartridge bearing. It is at least 25 years old.

campagnolo have used cartridge bearings in the freewheel bodies of their cassette hubs for about 30 years. They have NEVER used anything else.

Read my post(s) upthread.

cheers

Well thing is, this is a campagnolo hub and check out the photo I posted, you can see the loose bearings visible to the inner one. Fortunately they are looking good and don't seem to have much slogger so I don't have to mess about getting the circlip out.

It's not and never was a cartridge bearing. It is at least 25 years old. It has an inner ring with a groove in it and a cage that the bearings sit in. There is also a groove on the inner face of the freehub body. The bearings sit in the cage and run around the two grooves.

I measured the remaining bearings and they are 3/32 inch but they pass easily through the holes in the cage. As the rest of the bearings seem to have disintergrated I am thinking the remaining ones might be a bit worn.

Is there anyone out there has done this repair and knows the size of the bearings?

What do you think the insides of a broken cartridge bearing look like?

I've done this repair numerous times and you DEFINITELY have a broken cartridge bearing there. No question.

Horses and water spring to mind.