[principle1]

Hi all.

Sorry for the stupid question...I am not much of a wrench (just like to ride) but thought I would make an attempt at doing some off-season work on my 5 Spot instead of just forking the bucks to the LBS as usual. One of the many things I did was replace my old worn out rear cassette. Problem I am facing now is when engage the drivetrain, I can rotate the crank 1/2 - 3/4 turn before the rear hub engages. This was not the case prior to me working on it. I took it back apart a few times and for the life of me I can't figure out what I did wrong. The rear wheel in question is a Mavic Crossmax XL with XT drivetrain. Thanks guys for helping someone learn his way around a bike. By the way, I have no shame if I need to bring it into my shop, as I have already saved a bunch of money.


Edit: Just took my rear wheel off again and played around with it. Even with it tightened to specs, I can push in on the cassette and feel movement toward the hub. When pressed in, the cassette is engaging fully and does not skip when rotated. When i am not pressing in, the cassette occasionally skips a 1/4 to 1/2 turn.

Thanks again.

 

[CyclingJunkie]

A few things to check:
Check the cassette carrier for any burrs that might be preventing your cassette from seating properly.
Make sure the last two loose cogs (Shimano XT cassette right?) are seating properly on top of each other and on top of the rest of the cassette.
Clean and lightly grease the threads of the cassette and the lockring.

 

[principle1]

Thansk for the reply

A few things to check:
Check the cassette carrier for any burrs that might be preventing your cassette from seating properly.
Make sure the last two loose cogs (Shimano XT cassette right?) are seating properly on top of each other and on top of the rest of the cassette.
Clean and lightly grease the threads of the cassette and the lockring.

I just did those things. Everything looks right with regards to your suggestions. I did notice (please forgive my ignorance--no idea of the correct nomenclature--the bolt running through my rear hub could be pushed from one side to the other about 4 or 5 mm in either direction. I noticed the 6mm hex was somewhat loose and tighted it the best I could (the oppostite end of the hex was some sort of end cap which I could hold tight in my hand while I tightened the hex but once the hex tightened up, my hand grip was not enough to keep the whole thing from turnng. Anyway, still not sure what is going on but now that the hex is tight (albeit hand tight) the cassette does not slip anymore. I am uneasy that the whole thing is currently held together just hand tite. Also am not sure why this was loose to begin with. I did not touch this bolt when removing the old cassette.

 

[CyclingJunkie]

It sounds as if your bearing cups had simply worked loose. Based on the Mavic site, you should be able to tighten everything up with a flat wrench. It should be tight enough to eliminate all side to side play but not overly tight. Your skewer will keep everything snug once you put the wheel on the bike.

http://www.mavic.com/downloads/VTT.pdf

 

[journey]

Had a similar problem with my CrossMax XL's...

http://www.mavic.com/downloads/VTT.pdf

principle1 - I read your post on Monday and had just had the same experience the night before. I had downloaded the .pdf listed above, but its basically worthless if you are not familiar with the issue already. I recently purchased my wheelset used, so I did not get much out of it.

I found another posting on mtbr.com that gave a pointer to the Mavic tech doc's on the Mavic site. After a little more searching, I found all of the shop tech doc's on the Crossmax XL on another site somewhere in Europe.

Mavic is supposed to provide a 'Hub Wrench' for adjusting the play while the wheels are on the bike. The instructions indicate that if there is no play while the wheels are off the bike, once the QR is secured, you may be overstressing the bearings. You are supposed to adjust the 'play' in the wheel after it has been secured on the bike -- the hub wrench is supposed to let you adjust the play while the wheels are mounted.

You are supposed to adjust the play in the wheel by turning the item that you referred to as the end cap (i.e., on the rear wheel, its on the non-drive side). If your wheels are the same as mine, its silver in color and has 8 wholes in it. Anyway, you can use a pinner spanner tool to adjust the 'end cap' while the wheels are on the bike. I did not have a pinner spanner, but I did have a set of needle nose pliers that are bent at the end -- they are not as easy to use as a pin spanner, but you do what you have too.

Anyway, the instructions say to tighten until there is no play, and then back-off 1/4 of a turn. I tightened until there was very little play (i.e., the disk became harder to turn), and then backed off 1/4 of a turn. BTW, they say that the Hub Wrench is made of some sort of composite material so that you cannot over tighten the hub. After making this adjustment last night, the rear wheel stopped having the problem with slow engagement. I have not riden my bike yet on the trail, so I will see what happens.

If you want, I can send you the .pdf file that I downloaded on the adjusting the hubs.

 

[principle1]

That is the exact issue I am having

Thanks for the info. I ended up tightening the bolt as hard as I could using my bare hands and then left it that way and put the wheel on my bike. I rode last night and it felt great. I am not too comfortable with the way I "fixed" the problem if I was supposed to use a wrench to tighten and then back off 1/4 turn. I too did not receive a wrench and I bought my wheels new. I will see if my LBS has a wrnech kicing around. If you send me the PDF, I would be veryy grateful.

 

[journey]

just give me your email address...

If you send me the PDF, I would be veryy grateful.

Hi - Your profile is not setup to allow emails or PM's. Thus, if you PM or send me your email address, I will send it to you.