[perfectcents]

So I took my rear Gravity wheel and hub to get serviced - bike shop said bearing are ok but replaced cones. Picked up and took wheel home to mount to my MTB. Had to tighten the threaded axle as it was spread to wide. Went to ride this morning and everything was fine but I do not hear the freewheel ratcheting sound anymore. Any ideas?

 

[rockcrusher]

The axle issue would be of more concern to me than the freewheel. If the freewheel is catching and working properly then it probably just got lubed during the maintenance. However them giving you a wheel back that doesn't fit in your frame and required you to adjust it seems bad. Bearings have a certain amount of tension required to work properly. Too much and the bearings fail, too little and the wheel bangs around and the bearing or axle gets damaged. Either way I would bring your bike back to the shop and have them adjust those bearing cones to work with your frame.

Freewheel: if it ever slips or doesn't seem to catch, something probably is wrong. It will probably start making noise once the lube leaks out or gets contaminated.

 

[watts888]

bike shop said bearing are ok but replaced cones.

Had to tighten the threaded axle as it was spread to wide.

OK, bearings cost like $2 a set. If the cones need replaced, bearings definitely need replaced. Old bearings with new cones mean your new cones are going to get destroyed quick. Hopefully the second part meant that they just returned the wheel to you and you put the wheel in your bike. If they gave you a bike back where the wheel wasn't tightened down, or if the rear dropouts fit properly before, but were too wide after you got the bike back, they didn't assemble it right. That's some shady bike shop stuff going on there.

If the freewheel made noise before, they could have sprayed some WD40 into it. I've actually done it before, and it does quite down the hub a lot. If you have disc brakes, and they aren't working as well as they did before, they did this, but they were very sloppy about spraying the hub and not cleaning the rotor.

 

[perfectcents]

No they only had the wheel - not the whole bike. I put the wheel on after they worked on it. I am guessing why I would have to adjust the axle width and tighten the play at the cones was due to the fact they could not fit it to the frame. They showed me the old cones and they only had slight wear.

 

[One Pivot]

They screwed up. Theres no adjustment for axle width, at all. If it doesnt fit on the bike, its not right.

They either put the wrong cones on your hub, or just did a terrible job. Or both. Is this a shimano hub?

I wouldnt return to that shop.

 

[watts888]

They either put the wrong cones on your hub, or just did a terrible job. Or both. Is this a shimano hub?

If its a bikesdirect Gravity brand bike, it uses either formula hubs or gravity branded hubs. Basically, low end hubs comparable to the shimano m525 hub. Impossible to find replacement freehubs though. Not knocking them, I have multiple bikes from bikesdirect. Just a simple fact.

If I remember correctly, some of mine did have different length cone nuts on one side, so if the LBS replaced both cones with a narrower one, they should have added an additional nut to that side. Easy for them to do at the shop. Just needs a couple washers or a appropriate width nut. Unfortunately, the nut isn't the same one you can buy at a hardware store. For some stupid reason, bike hubs use bike hub specific thread pitches. Once again, I'll blame specialized.