Problem rebuilding Ultegra 9spd rear hub

[Peter Van Buren]

Hi,

I recently replaced the freewheel body on my rear 9spd Ultegra hub.
I'm having trouble adjusting it after cleaning everything and
replacing the ball bearings. When I disassembled it, I worked from the
drive side. I am trying to reassemble from that side, and I have found
that when I remove almost all of the play, there aren't enough threads
left on the axle for the fork. It also feels like there is way too
much drag.

In looking at a diagram of the hub from:

http://tinyurl.com/2zj9rf

I'm wondering if the right hand seal ring (# 9 in the diagram) is not
causing the problem. Is this seal ring supposed to compress down into
the freehub body? There is a recessed area in the right hand cone
where I believe the seal ring is supposed to sit. However, when I
tighten down the cone, the seal ring gets squashed between the cone
and freehub body. I tired pushing the seal ring down into the freehub
body, but there is now too much drag and the cone isn't sitting down
far enough on the axle. Any ideas on what might be going on here?

Thanks,

Peter.

 

[Bill]

"Peter Van Buren" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi,
>
> I recently replaced the freewheel body on my rear 9spd Ultegra hub.
> I'm having trouble adjusting it after cleaning everything and
> replacing the ball bearings. When I disassembled it, I worked from the
> drive side. I am trying to reassemble from that side, and I have found
> that when I remove almost all of the play, there aren't enough threads
> left on the axle for the fork. It also feels like there is way too
> much drag.
>
> In looking at a diagram of the hub from:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/2zj9rf
>
> I'm wondering if the right hand seal ring (# 9 in the diagram) is not
> causing the problem. Is this seal ring supposed to compress down into
> the freehub body? There is a recessed area in the right hand cone
> where I believe the seal ring is supposed to sit. However, when I
> tighten down the cone, the seal ring gets squashed between the cone
> and freehub body. I tired pushing the seal ring down into the freehub
> body, but there is now too much drag and the cone isn't sitting down
> far enough on the axle. Any ideas on what might be going on here?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Peter.
>
I just had a similar problem. Tore apart my wife's ultegra hub and got back
to it about three weeks later. Had a brain fart and reversed the axel and
also inserted the plastic outer dust cover (#9) in the cassette body upside
down. Dust cover upside down is forced against the right side bearings when
you tighten the lock ring. If you can look at another Ultegra or DuraAce hub
next to yours you will see where you went wrong. Took me an hour and a half
to do a ten minute job. The joys of being a DIY / OJT mechanic.
Bill

 

[Peter Van Buren]

On Jul 14, 8:09 pm, "Bill" <[email protected]> wrote:
> "Peter Van Buren" <[email protected]> wrote in messagenews:[email protected]...
>
> > Hi,
>
> > I recently replaced the freewheel body on my rear 9spd Ultegra hub.
> > I'm having trouble adjusting it after cleaning everything and
> > replacing the ball bearings. When I disassembled it, I worked from the
> > drive side. I am trying to reassemble from that side, and I have found
> > that when I remove almost all of the play, there aren't enough threads
> > left on the axle for the fork. It also feels like there is way too
> > much drag.
>
> > In looking at a diagram of the hub from:
>
> >http://tinyurl.com/2zj9rf
>
> > I'm wondering if the right hand seal ring (# 9 in the diagram) is not
> > causing the problem. Is this seal ring supposed to compress down into
> > the freehub body? There is a recessed area in the right hand cone
> > where I believe the seal ring is supposed to sit. However, when I
> > tighten down the cone, the seal ring gets squashed between the cone
> > and freehub body. I tired pushing the seal ring down into the freehub
> > body, but there is now too much drag and the cone isn't sitting down
> > far enough on the axle. Any ideas on what might be going on here?
>
> > Thanks,
>
> > Peter.
>
> I just had a similar problem. Tore apart my wife's ultegra hub and got back
> to it about three weeks later. Had a brain fart and reversed the axel and
> also inserted the plastic outer dust cover (#9) in the cassette body upside
> down. Dust cover upside down is forced against the right side bearings when
> you tighten the lock ring. If you can look at another Ultegra or DuraAce hub
> next to yours you will see where you went wrong. Took me an hour and a half
> to do a ten minute job. The joys of being a DIY / OJT mechanic.
> Bill

Thanks, but I think I had it assembled correctly. I believe I finally
found out what the problem is. The diameter of the opening on the new
freehub body appears to be about 18mm. The diameter of the old freehub
body appears to be 21mm. The original right hand seal ring does not
fit smoothly into the new freehub body. It gets squished before the
cone starts to hit the bearings. This causes lots of drag and prevents
the cone from tightening down properly.

I ordered the new freehub body from the LBS and specified it was for
an Ultegra 9sd. I don't have the little insert that came with the
package anymore, but I'm pretty sure it said 6500 on it. I wonder why
the diameter is different on this one, unless this is something other
than a 6500 or the 6500 body and seal ring changed at some point.

Well, there's three hours of my life I won't get back. Oh well, back
to the LBS...