mattinkansas

I picked up a used Araya rim 26/150 recently very cheap. It's in excellent shape overall, except I think I need to obtain the little caps in the photo. The guy I bought the wheel from wasn't even sure if the caps in the photo went with the bike and they are bent out of shape. So, first, is the guy right? Does this Araya rim use these caps? And what is the correct term from them? Last, if I can buy replacements, how are they measured to determine fit?

I feel like the rim is worth investing in. It is pretty clean and round and true. Thank you.

andrewclaus

They're dust seals and they press fit into the hub, cup side toward the center. The axle cones should just fit through the hole. Sometimes the cones have an O-ring to sort of match. Check the bearing race of the cones for pitting (use a ball point pen) before proceeding.

It's very easy to bend those when prying them out for service, but they can usually be bent back into usable shape with a small anvil and blunt tool like the end of a steel rod. It's best to use a cone wrench flat-wise to remove them, and the flat handle of the same wrench to reinstall.

Crankycrank

+1 ^^^ with andrewclaus. If no luck getting them back into shape or they're the wrong seals, take the wheel and axle assembly to your local bike shop or co-op who may have something. Do you know who makes the hub itself? That would help narrow it down a bit as to what to look for.

davidad

Dust shields.

ThermionicScott 

I generally don't remove those pieces to clean hubs anymore. Just use your pinkie and a paper towel, doing multiple passes to wipe out the old crud, then clean your pinkie reasonably well before applying fresh grease.

BCRider

Me too.

For those of us with fat fingers or just big hands a set of angle tweezers or angle forceps is great for holding the little wad of paper towel for getting deep into the corners.

Mattinkansas, if you can find the proper size of socket you can force the cup of these seals over the socket and LIGHTLY tap it with something like a block of wood to restore their roundness. Similarly "body working" the inward shape will restore your seals so they fit into the hubs neatly once more. As mentioned they are quite malliable so they can be re-shaped quite a lot. Just don't smack them hard or you stretch the metal and then they won't fit. The stretching grows the diameter and then they are toast without major sheet metal skills. Shrinking the metal back is doable. But it's better to avoid the need to learn THAT skill as well....

mattinkansas

You all are great! Like walking, talking bike encyclopedias with a sense of humor. Appreciate all the tips and explanations. I'll check on the maker of the hub and file away all the tricks you have provided for future use. But will have to google "angle forceps!" -- best regards, Matt

dedhed

I've used oil seals to replace these at times. OD X ID x thickness
Something like this.
​​​​​​https://www.theoringstore.com/store/...ducts_id=25711

ThermionicScott 

That's a cool idea -- you could do better than stock in many cases!

SurferRosa

I doubt they do either.

The hub looks fine. If you have the axle, cones and locknuts, put it all that together, mock style, placing those dust caps over the lock nut and take a picture of it. It'll probably look like crap, verifying they're from some other mangled hub.

mattinkansas

Nice. That is clever. Thank you for the tip and the direct link.

dedhed

Measure the hub ID, cone OD and try to find a 3 or 4mm width. Lots of them are 5-7 mm wide. It doesn't have to seat in the hub completely, just clear the locknut etc to fit in the drop out and not interfere with the bearing balls.