Flying Campy Bearings

I bought my Bianchi Eros in the 2000 time frame, and it has an unknown Campy rear hub. I've maintained it over the years, but never serviced the rear hub because the local shop told me how difficult it was to reassemble. If I recall, he mentioned something about special clip(s) that needed a special tool to reinsert, and if you screw it up, bearings fly all over the room. I'm sure I can do it, if I educate myself. Googling "Campy flying hub bearings" doesn't return much. If I new the type of hub, I could search accordingly and figure it out. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

The reason you haven't heard about this outside your bike shop is because either:

1. The story is a load of rubbish, or
2. the guy you spoke to has a really weird (and violent) way of servicing hubs!

Exploded (no pun intended) diagrams for equipment since 2000 are still available in the form of spare parts catalogues.

http://www.campagnolo.com/jsp/en/doc/doccatid_3.jsp

Aside from listing all the spare parts, they also go a long way to showing how it all comes apart and goes back together.

As can be seen from the documents from circa 2000, there are no special clips or springs apart from the spring used to retain the freewheel pawls. Like most other hubs they are simple enough.

 

There was a tiny kernel of truth in what the shop was saying, but it was a tiny kernel, and there's no problem for any intelligent mechanic.

Current (since 2000) Campy freehubs use a single circular spring for the ratchet pawls (not the bearings), which also keeps them in place when the hub is disassembled. However on the first generation hubs the 3 pawls each had a tiny coil spring below and nothing to keep them home outside of the ratchet ring. So Campy provided a circular clip that held them in place while you fitted the freehub body into the hub shell. They went halfway together, then the clip was slipped off and you pushed the freehub the rest of the way in.

If you have 1st generation hubs, it's still not a serious problem. First work carefully as you slide the freehub clear of the ratchet ring to make sure you catch any pawl that might spring free. If you're nervous, pull the hub apart in a bucket just in case. For assembly without the clip, wind a few turns of dental floss or fishing line around the pawls to keep them in place, assemble the hub partway leaving a small gap and unwind the floss.

So, yes there was a clip, but no you don't need it, you can use dental floss instead.

 

Thanks so much. I'm sure the mechanic made it sound worse that it truly was. Sounds easy enough.

 

I see, so it isn't anything to do with bearings anyway.
While I havent done an old campag hub, I have done others which have individual coil springs under each pawl. I've found it possible to press them down with fingers alone to get them in (though it is a little fiddly).

At any rate I think we can agree that your hub will not vaporise if you were to make a mistake. As long as you're sensible about it, it's a simple job.

As with any job, a clear workspace is the most important. Then your chances of loosing anything are pretty small.

 

Tafi,

Thanks for the link. His story did work. I always had him service the hub. I'll take it from here. I appreciate your help.