Andy,
I figured you would have picked it up right away. Brocephus is on the right track about the balls coming from either side of the hub.
A little back history on these hubs; I picked a Reynolds 531 bike complete out of the crush pile at a local scrap yard and paid six bucks for it. Group was a 600 arabesque, with touring tires and fenders. I kept the frame and sold the groupo to a young mechanic who wanted it for a project he was working on for $60. The wheels showed up in the local co-op last week so I bought them back. I think the white Li came from the young fella who probably overhauled the hubs. And I also think he put the same bearings back into the hubs in the same place.
Kimmo, I don't think the high speeds are a problem with these.
It is however my opinion that pressure was the culprit. And I think the damage was done long before my young mechanic got to these hubs. If you all will go look again at the picture again you may see it. The extremely damaged bearings are all the dark ones on the left side and were caused by too much pressure in the hub. The right side bearings show secondary damage due to temperature build up from the extreme pressure of the ones on the left. Some mechanic in the past made a rookie move and "count em" put twenty-one bearings into that hub. Riding it may have been difficult because the front wheel would roll ok, then tighten up, (and lather, rinse, repeat) for the duration of a ride. Maybe why it would up in the junkyard in the first place. It is possible to make a wheel feel like it is correctly set for bearing tolerances with too many bearings in the shell, but it will alternately loosen and tighten making truing impossible. I hope you all had some fun speculating, Smiles, MH
Last edited by Mad Honk; 08-11-19 at 06:24 PM.