replacing sealed bearings
 

I have an old Phil Wood rear freewheel that is sounding a little creaky. It's the first time I took apart a wheel with sealed bearings. It was simpler than I thought to remove the bearings, but in addition to the bearings there is a thin spacer/washer on the inner side of each bearing. As you can see in the photo, this washer is bent up, and I'm wondering what it's there for? In looking for replacement bearings, I don't see any mention of this spacer/washer (even at the Phil Wood site). Is it necessary? Should I just reuse the bent one with a new bearing--or where can I get a replacement for it? Thanks in advance for the help.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...767ee01c10.jpg

I don't have any answers for your questions but I recommend you try prying off the black seal with a thin blade of some type and flushing out and re-greasing the bearings before deciding to replace them. New grease may be all that's needed. Of course if the balls are rattling around and rusty or pitted the bearing will need to be replaced.

Does the removed bearing have a seal on its inner side? At first I thought that the thin "washer" might have been a preload shim, a shim to better set the bearing preload after the other parts were found to be slightly off tolerance. But I did a coarse diameter comparison between the "washer" and the black bearing seal still on the bearing. The "washer" seems to have an OD very close to what the seal's would be if removed from the bearing. Thus my question of the bearing seal, the "washer" could be a seal from the inner side that came off during bearing removal. Cartridge bearings can have a few different types of seals including a non contact metal one. Remember that the side of the bearing that's inside the hub is pretty well protected and doesn't "need" a contact seal. Andy

Inner and outer sides of the bearing look to be identical, so I don't think it's a seal. I was thinking the same thing that the inner side of the bearing is pretty protected, so I'm wondering what it would be for? Have others seen this in other types of wheel hubs?

Well then, is the "washer" of the same diameter as the bearing's OD? If so (and this would be not what my feeble attempt to compare showed) my speculation of a preload adjusting shim could be right. Another possibility is that someone before you replaced the bearings and thought that the "washer" was needed. There are some designs that use a wave washer to provide end play support, recently FSA used this with some of their BBs. Andy

To add to my above post- Phil used various axle/bearing designs over the years. Their FSA (field serviceable assembly) versions are one that I have less experience with. have you tried to contact them? Andy

"Wavy washers" are very much a thing for achieving light preload, I'd keep that unless you feel it's worn out, in which case you might check McMaster-Carr which calls them "wave disc springs".

While one can indeed typically pop off the seals with the point of a knife and put some grease in there, sealed bearings are cheap. And if the disassembly process applied any axial load between inner and outer races, they're toast now even if they weren't before.

You can preheat the new ones to "can barely touch" temperature to make putting them on a close fitting shaft easier.

But if you ever end up having to "drive" a bearing that you still want to use, make sure you're using a ring of something that's pushing on the race you're trying to move, NOT the other one, as that out of spec axial load between races will damage them.

I contacted Phil Wood service and got an initial reply and request for a photo but haven't heard anything since -- was hoping someone here had seen these. I ended up pulling the bearings on a front wheel that also has Phil Wood hubs and it looked to have the same set up. But no indication of this sort of part on their web site.

More common is warming up the hubshell/freehub body for easier install, axle fit is usually a slightly easier fit then the shell's. I've also placed the axle in the freezer before it's install. Andy