Hi all, I taking some reference pictures of my rear wheel before I tore it all down, and the thought of documenting it for prosperity and future generations washed over me. I know there's already alot of other posts on the subject (much of which I'm using as reference, and may borrow portions of) and my goal is not to flood, but to combine all the knowledge into one post, start to finish.
The objective of this journal is to document:
- The disassembly of the rear wheel and hub
- The polishing and cleaning of those components
- Removal of the wheel bearing retainers
- Replacement of wheel bearings
- Applying paint to hub and other components
- Reassembly of rear hub
- Relacing the rear hub to the rear hoop
Here's a few pictures of the rear wheel before I started, as you can see, it's in pretty sad shape:
Now, time for disassembly. The process I followed, as I was doing it for the first time, was to remove the tire, then the spokes, seperate the hub from the hoop, then remove the sprocket and rotor. This is definitely not recommended. Every bolt holding the sprocket and brake disc in place has a rediculous ammount of torque on it, and I would recommend tackling them first, with the tire still in place to hold the entire assemble flat on the ground.
Grab yourself a screw driver or chisel and bend down the retainers holding the four bolts on the sprocket side. Next, use either an air gun, breaker bar, or a four-way tire iron to remove the four 19mm bolts holding the sprocket in place. Once they're off, remove the gear assembly and soak it in some gasoline/purple power/simple green.
While that's soaking, flip the wheel over and remove the six bolts holding the rotor in place. Once the rotor is off, take all the bolts you just removed and place them back on their respective posts until they are finger tight. (No point in losing them)
Time for the fun part - removing the tire. Remove the valve stem cap, take a pair of needle-nose pliers, and use them to unscrew the valve. With your tire now very much flat, set the wheel on some towels, pick up either a drop-weight mallet or regular rubber mallet, and beat on the tire one side at a time until the seal is broken all the way around. Using either a set of tire wrenches, or pry bars, remove the tire from the rim. (much easier said than done) If you're having trouble removing the second half of the tire, a neat trick I've learned is to use a dremel to cut the inner-most cord of the tire, and slice the rest of the tire in half. With the tire gone, remove the rubber strip covering the spoke nipples, and smile widely at the rust grinning back at you.
You should now have the rotor, sprocket, and tire all removed. At this point, you're going to want to take out your camera. Make sure you photograph your wheel from several different angles, taking note which side has the hole for the valve stem, what spokes start on the inside and outside of the hub, and which spokes have roughly a 90 degree bend to them and which have a second bend to them about 3/4 of an inch down from the hub.
** Note - do not rely on the pictures I have posted as a reference to your own wheel. Mine is a 16" after-market hoop. **
With your pictures and notes taken, you can start removing your spokes. Just grab your spoke wrench, should be in the top drawer of your tool chest! What? No spoke wrench? Me neither. Grab a screw driver and a 1/4" open-end wrench. If your wheels are in fairly decent shape, you shouldn't have too much trouble getting the spokes loosened enough you can finish them off with a screw driver or drill. If they're in as good as shape as mine were, however, prepare to swear alot, drink a few beers, and ponder how it is that we can land a man on the moon, but that ratcheting open-end wrench hasn't been invented yet.
Make sure that once you get down to the last few you place something under the hub to catch it when it becomes free. I just balled up a couple shop towels.
And voilá, you've just finished what's without a doubt the worst part of the job! In my next post, I'll go over cleaning up the parts. Here's a little teaser:
All images can be found at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/traa2k1/. Can someone PM me a good photosharing service? Flickr is a pain...
