badger_biker 

I'm going through a 1987 Voyageur and the front and rear hub cones are a bit pitted and I'm wondering if anyone knows of a source for replacements. The hub races are still good. They hubs have dust caps that have a channel in them that a disk pressed onto the cone fits into. It is an early version of a "sealed" bearing I guess. Since these are 36 and 40 spoked wheels I would like to keep them for the old tourer.

I don't know if Schwinn used much of a variety of maillard hubs or if the same ones were used for LeTours, etc. of the same vintage.
Any info would be appreciated.

drewfio

Resurrecting this...

did you ever find a good replacement for the hub cones? Rebuilding an ‘88 Voyageur, and in the same situation.

polymorphself 

I can’t help but post a pic of your Voyageur in the meantime

badger_biker 

I checked at a couple old time Schwinn LBS and happened to find one at each. I’ve since sold that Voyageur but I may have a couple of used cones around. I’ll check and see what shape they are in and let you know.

drewfio

Ha, sure. Here is where I'm at so far with the bike:




And said pitted cone:

drewfio

Thanks for reply! If you've got a replacement, I'd certainly be interested.

badger_biker 

I found this envelope with an old beat up Malliard cone but I think I found that the Alivio cones were a perfect match for at least the front cones. Maybe that will be something you can use to track something down.

drewfio

Thanks for looking! I'll see if I can track some down to compare.

drewfio

I also found some axles which include cones on eBay after some roundabout keyword searching, that I'm wondering if the cones would be a suitable replacement. They are pricey, so I'm hoping to get a better sense before I buy. Here is the description:






And here are some more photos of what I'm hoping to replace, for reference:

dddd

I've said it before, but I always keep my bid prices on Schwinns of this era in check because of my full expectation that the hub cones will have left the factory sufficiently over-tight so as to almost guarantee one or more of them are pitted.

So easy to fix before the bike has miles on it, and such a pain after!

I would have thought that this type of cone would be one that Wheels Mfg would offer faithfully duplicated(?).

drewfio

I took a look, and didn't see anything that looked to my amateur eyes like a clear match. If one of those works, I'd love to know which one!

Headpost

I'm not sure if your cones are too far gone, but you could also try this method--assuming you have some time and a drill you don't mind putting some mileage on.

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...sandpaper.html

drewfio

I read that thread, and a bunch of others about the method. Seriously considering it. I'd certainly feel more confident in riding appropriate replacement cones, but it seems others have had success and gotten many miles from the resurfaced cones. I have access to a lathe, so I would not have to wear out a drill. From the photo of my cone above, looking at the depth of the pitting, do you think it might be a good candidate for this?

SJX426 

I needed one of these and gave up. It is off a Trek 610 with the 3/16 balled rear hub.
P1000288 on Flickr

Headpost

Definitely. Did you read the article I attached to the other thread? The cones I did were about as bad as the one pictured, and if you have a lathe the job might even be enjoyable.

https://bicycleobsession.wordpress.c...ted-hub-cones/

oneclick 

Consider this:

Balls are graded for quality. Years ago, G100 was ok, G25 was expensive, now G25 is common. G25 balls have a size tolerance of plus-or-minus one ten-thousandth of an inch.

I've measured pit depth and race concentricity. A good quality race is better than I can measure for concentricity; and small but visible pits are on the order of a few tenths of thousandths of an inch. Bad pits (as above) break through the case layer, which is likely between ten and forty thousandths.

Ball and race wear are related to contact pressure. This is not an analog function; at least not a smooth one, but stepped. If one of 11 balls loses contact as it drops into a pit the pressure on the others (assuming they all *are* in contact) goes up by 9%. Grind the cone out of true by two one-thousandths and you could be running the bearing most of the time on three balls.

So those are some hard numbers to hit, and most bad cones are a long way away. Some people are sure they can essentially hold tolerances of a thousandth of an inch by hand. With a good lathe and toolpost grinder setup or a dedicated grinder you have a chance.