daniell

This is an eight speed Deore hub.
I removed the cassette to adjust the cones.
This is the problem.
I can discern no play in the non drive side.
Yet the drive side has significant play.
The freehub also has some play.

daniell

I think that I need a new freehub. It may be better to buy a new hub.

blamester

Open it up and see what's going on first.

daniell

The cassette is off. There is considerable amount of play in the freehub. When I try to wiggle the non drive side axle, I have no play.

bboy314

Have you tried tightening or removing the freehub?

Crankycrank

As blamester mentioned, you have to take it apart in order to know what's going on. Wiggling things around won't give you, or us, any insight as to why it's loose. You may have a damaged bearing ball, pitted hub races and cones, needs a cleaning and lube, etc., etc.

70sSanO

I guess the first question is did you try to put pressure on the end of the DS axle, or pull toward the NDS, to see if the play does move from DS to NDS. I've adjusted cones and find that sometimes I can feel play on one side, but if I try to put pressure the other way I can feel the play on the other side. The only word in your post that is concerning is the word significant.

I'm no freehub body assemble expert, but basically you have a inner core, with pawls, and an outer shell. A simplistic view the inner core gets attached to the hub, and the hub bearing cup is threaded tightly onto the inner core. The outer shell just rotates and any freehub body shell play doesn't impact the play in the hub bearings.

You can see in the image from Park Tool, the bearing cone threads onto the inner race/pawls core and is tightened against the adjustment washers:


If the freehub body is not firmly attached to the rear hub, there can be play. Or if the bearing race is not tight and it moves there can be play.

John

daniell

I took the hub apart and tightened the freehub with a 10mm Alan wrench. I made it as tight as I could get it. It did help somewhat.

daniell

I just assembled the hub. The tightening of the freehub bolt solved the problem. Now I must assemble the cassette.

andrewclaus

If that freehub bolt was loose, you may still have problems. That shouldn't have happened, and it may be damaged. Keep a close eye on it. If it reoccurs and a new freehub and bolt doesn't fix it, the threads in the hub are damaged and you'll need a new hub or wheel.

The last time I needed to replace that style freehub, I bought a NOS hub pretty cheap on eBay and stripped it. If there's a bike co-op near you, you'll probably find salvaged parts there.

daniell

Thanks for the input. I think that any problem that develops will be gradual.

alcjphil

I have had that same problem with a Shimano freehub in the past and my solution was the same as yours. Problem never came back