Boyd Speerschneider said:David Kunz <[email hidden]> wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:
Quoted message said:Boyd Speerschneider said:[email hidden] (John S) wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:
>Over the weekend my AC rear hub began to disengage whenever I stopped pedaling. It would take a
>few slow revs of freewheeling to get it to re-engage again. I had to ride 30 miles home this
>way. It was a real hassle.
>
>I took it apart and noticed a wire hooked into the freehub body, protruding slightly. When the
>freehub body is installed, the end of the wire rests against the cam plate. The end of the wire
>gets caught in the holes of the cam plate, turning it slightly and engaging the pawls. This wire
>was occasionally not hooking onto the holes on the cam plate. I bent it out and it started
>working again. This design does not inspire a lot of confidence in me with this hub.
>
>Anybody who rides these hubs had any experience such as this? Should I junk this hub and go back
>to Campy?
>
>John
I would suggest getting in touch with their customer service department at:
amclassic.comamclassic.comOpen ↗
If they can't help you over the phone, they will be happy to do warranty work with a very short
turn around.
- Boyd S.
I had the opposite experience with them. Hub bearings failed in 3 months. They said it couldn't
happen. My LBS worked on them and they agreed to warrenty 2 of the 4 bearings. My LBS talked some
more to them and they finally said they'd cover all 4 bearings, including sufficient bearing seals
that each bearing would have it's own. 4 bearings arrived at the shop, but the shop was charged
for 2 of them and there were only 2 seals so only the outer side of the outer bearings could be
sealed (IMO, water intrusion caused the damage).
I'll never buy American Classic again...
David
David,
I used to work at American Classic in the warranty department. I'm assuming you had one of the
hubs with a grease port. With this hub, it is imperative that you only need seals on the outer
side of the outer bearings. This is because the grease you (should regulary) inject into the
greaseport needs to work its way around to all the bearings. I would bet a lot of money that you
neglected to do this. If you had, there would be no "water damage".
Just my $0.02,
- Boyd S.
ps. How many other companies warranty against neglect?
No. I did it regularly. I was going though hubs destroying bearings trying to find one that was
strong enough for me -- and I was very conscious of greasing the bearings. I was working the the
head wrench of my LBS, so I had decent guidance.
The grease port was the reason that I bought the hub. But, after about 2 or 3 months, the grease
started coming out past the seals and dumping on my rear disc rotor which instantly gave me no rear
braking and trashed the pads (why I think that it was water intrusion -- if the grease comes out,
water can get in). One of the bearings had totally collapsed (just balls inside the hub), it's mate
on the same side was in bad shape, the other 2 were questionable.
And, when I put the 2 replacement bearings in with the 2 new outer seals, it stopped the seaping for
a whole 2 weeks <sigh>. That's why I wanted to go to a regular bearing seal style and just pull 'em
apart every couple of months and grease the bearings.
I replaced it with a Chris King; borrowed, then bought a Chris King tool for maintenance; and have
had 2 years of trouble-free riding (well... at least my hubs have been trouble free 🙂).
David
