Camilo

I'm trying to figure out what to do. I bought a Campy pre-Exadrive 8 speed (not 7/8) rear hub from a seller in Europe. The hub is beautiful visually.

The problem is the non-drive (left) side of the hub (the other side is perfect). It had obviously had water intrusion and the cone, cup and balls were all rusty. I cleaned them up and buffed the surfaces up with some fine emery paper, but pitting is obvious on the cone and cup. With new balls and a good cleaning and liberal greasing, the hub is not bad, but is not perfectly smooth. There is faint grittiness I can feel especially when I put downward pressure on the axle when turning it.

Normally, I'd put up with it until I could maybe find and install new cup and cone, but these things aren't readily available, as far as I can tell. So I bought a new hub for about the cost of the parts (with shipping, if I could actually find them), that the reputable seller assured me has good bearings. Thus my questions:

First question: Does anyone know if the bearing parts listed in a 1994 catalog for an 8 speed hub would work on my 8 speed hub of a few years earlier? I can't find an earlier catalog or parts list. I found cone and cup part numbers for the 8 speed hub from a 1994 catalog. But I'm pretty sure that's one generation newer than mine. They look the same. If so, knowing part numbers, I might try to find and install the parts and either use the hub or sell it in better working condition instead of "as-is" (with an honest explanation) ... see next question.

Question two: I wonder what the "defective" but beautiful hub is worth as-is? Would anyone buy it knowing that one side is pitted underneath the fresh grease (honest sale is my intention)? I'd actually think about using it myself and just greasing it more frequently, and maybe someone else would be satisfied with that, or using it for parts. But I'm building a wheel with it, and really would like a good hub from the get-go and don't want to wait for the parts and time to rebuild it, if the parts are even available.

The seller of the original, defective hub has asked me what he would need to do to make me happy. He didn't actually mislead me on the sale, but the deplorable condition of the bad bearing is something I feel should have been obvious to him and fully disclosed instead of "might need maintenance". Returning isn't a viable option. I will ask him to discount the original purchase commensurate with this reduced value. I'm talking 10s of dollars here, not 100s, not a huge financial issue. Like I said, the hub is beautiful visually, shines up like new. The bearings on the drive side are perfect, the free hub's internal bearings are perfectly smooth and the pawls work perfectly. The freehub itself is almost unmarked. An excellent parts donor if nothing else.

Thanks for any advice.

repechage

your problem hub is essentially worth the freewheeling part and the axle. Of some value to the right person.
I have purchased a few of these hubs as spares in waiting, I have not looked in a while, I think prices were $35 and $50.

Camilo

Thanks. That's more or less what I thought.