[batman1425]

I've been maintaining my bikes my self for the last 7 years, and I've never come across anything like this.

I repacked my rear hub and lubed the cassette body. Then I cleaned and lubed my chain and cassette, put everything back together and my drivetrain is ridiculously noisy and it feels like there is a lot of friction in the system somewhere. I took the hub apart again to make sure everything was lubed properly. The wheel spins freely and easily in my stand and the crank also spins easily with out the chain attached. I took off the chain and checked for stiff links, no issues there. The jockey pulleys are all installed correctly and spin freely. However, its feels noticeably more difficult to spin the crank by hand when in the big ring on any cog in the rear and there is lots of noise coming from the cassette despite 4 different re adjustments. Of particular note, when turning the crank very slowly by hand with the bike in the stand and the rear wheel able to spin, the crank will will spin and then get to a point where the friction increases then with a little more force it will break through that barrier and keep spinning till the next one. I can't notice any definite periodization to that, but it happens often. This made me think of the wheel bearings, but I've checked them twice, and even if there was something a muck with the bearings, that wouldn't explain the noise... I'm stumped...

Any thoughts? Please help!

 

[FBinNY]

Just to be sure, is the chain threaded correctly through the RD and not rubbing on a tab on the cage between the pulleys?

Try running the cranks and chain with either no wheel, using a chain keeper if you have or a coke bottle held where the wheel would be and see if it runs smoothly. If so the problem is in your rear wheel.

Mount the wheel without the chain, and see how it and the cassette spin with the QR closed. They both should w/o friction and the wheel should spin forward w/o pushing the cassette along with more than a wee bit of torque.

One common error is to adjust hub bearings off the bike, which then end up over tightened when the QR is closed.

 

[roadboy]

try a new chain, I have seen chains that look clean and are lubed but have alot of friction when on the bike, just because it's "cleaned" doesn't mean it's all good. I have seen new chains transform bikes, sometimes its amazing what a new chain can do, of course this depends on how worn and or dirty the old one was.

 

[Dinosaur]

New chain..

 

[batman1425]

Updates

Alright, so I repacked the hub again, with fresh phill wood grease. I clamped the wheel in the dropouts and then adjusted the preload. I found it very difficult to tighten it enough to keep the axel from wobeling with out inhibiting free movement. I think what is left is seal drag though. The weird semi periodic increase in friction is gone.

The other interesting issue and I think the source of the noise and poor shifting... I notice when clamping my wheel in, that the der. hangar moves quite a bit as I tighten down the skewer, about 5-7mm!!! Should that ever happen? What does that suggest? From the looks of it, it appears that it is way out of alignment, and I think that might be what is causing the noise and drag issues by putting a weird torque on the chain.

A confession, when I first re-packed the hub a few weeks ago, i miss interpreted the disassembly protocol and gave the axel a few hard raps with a hammer to pop out the axel... on the wrong side... :cryin: I inspected the bearings and races and there is no apparent damage. Could I have damaged something that would cause the components in the hub to be way out of alignment?

 

[Kerry Irons]

Get bent

I notice when clamping my wheel in, that the der. hangar moves quite a bit as I tighten down the skewer, about 5-7mm!!! Should that ever happen? What does that suggest? From the looks of it, it appears that it is way out of alignment, and I think that might be what is causing the noise and drag issues by putting a weird torque on the chain.

There is no way that should happen. You should be able to eyeball the hanger and see whether it is straight without the wheel in place. If it looks straight without the wheel, then there is a problem with the skewer clamping, but it's more likely that the skewer clamping force attempts to straighten the dropout. I think you need to have somebody look at that frame.

 

[batman1425]

I took it in today. The hangar was bent slightly, but more importantly the bolts holding it to the frame were loose, which is what allowed the movement when closing the skewer. That and a savy hand adjusting the shifting had it running butter smooth. Unfortunatly, I also hit a large pothole yesterday, which bent the rear wheel so bad, my shop mechanic couldn't fix it.... :mad2:

Now on the lookout for a campy compatible wheelset that won't break the bank. Ugh...