Bicycle Mechanics - Lost a ball bearing inside the hub.. help !

hey kids...

well I decided to play wrench again, and after re-packing my bottom bracket, and re-packing my front hub bearings... I decided to do the back hub... easy to take all apart.. cleaned everything real well, and went to put it all back together, and noticed I was one ball short (insert laugh track here)... I looked all over... adn there is no way it could have disappeared where I was working... I figured that since the bike was pretty old.. that maybe it had been missing forever.. and I just didn;t know it.... sooo.. I went to the LBS today at lunch and they gave me a new ball to put in there... one old wrench that was in there said that it is a good possibility that missing ball may have fallen into the middle of the hub into a machined out groove.... this sounds highly probable to me, as a few fell straight thru the axle hole, and even a few stuck in there, that I pushed out with a thin screwdriver... my question is... after I take it apart again to get to the axle hole... how do I get that bearing out if it is in there ? it's a pretty tight hole... a small screwdriver or somethign similar... if it is in there it is probably prettysticky, as the grease was like 13 years old, and nasty sticky, and brown like chocolate....

thanks.. lemme know if you have any good ideas :-)

Jeff

I use a little magnetic probe. You can put a blob of grease on the end of a screwdriver and fish it out that way to.

rev. chuck is the man!

theres no way that the missing ball will end on the middle of the hub, and as suggested that it may have been grind to kingdom come, becuase if it did, it would have made a mark on the rod, I would suggest that who ever repack your hubs, is really short one ball...

If you have everything back together and it's working fine, leave it, if the ball is inside the hub, it isn't going to hurt anything. Have to agree with Old Wrench, as I've seen more than one hub / headset that was a bearing or two short of a full race before.

If you're insistant that you must retrieve the wayward ball, Rev. Chuck's advice is sublime.

well I disassembled the hub last night.. and searched around in the middle for the errant ball.. but it was no where to be found.. I greased up the axlerod.. slid it in... twisted it around... and no mark.. so that leads me to believe that the race was short a ball... so I repacked it once more... this time with the extra ball the LBS gave me... adjusted.. rode up and down my hill... voila !! smooth as butter... so now I have 2 newly repacked hubs, along with a repacked bottom bracket... all is good !

thanks for all the advice.. Rev. Chuck is da man !

Jeff

I remember hearing that back in the day of drilling out frame parts, a common practice was to take the balls out of the bearing holders, and put less bearings in the hub. This was supposed to reduce weight (2g? ) and decrease rolling resistance. I'm not sure anyone could feel any difference, but hey, anything for racing, right?

i've heard of removing the bearing holder, and just using
loose bearings (all my older hubs are like this) but
how much weight would a few bearings weigh?
of course if the bike is made of serious drillium well
a few bearings is alot.

Marty

Originally posted by lotek
i've heard of removing the bearing holder, and just using
loose bearings (all my older hubs are like this) but
how much weight would a few bearings weigh?
of course if the bike is made of serious drillium well
a few bearings is alot.

Marty
I beleive loose b/bearings are better than caged ones as they wear the cups /races more even ??

yeah my hubs are the old school bearings in cups... I haven;t take it out on a longer ride yet.. but just cruising around my neighborhood.. it seems pretty good... seems a bit faster downhills... I was hitting 31 mph on a hill where I normally only get to about 28... this may be all in my imagination though... I'll know more tonite when I go riding :-)

Thanks again for everyone's help

Jeff

Originally posted by SipperPhoto
I was hitting 31 mph on a hill where I normally only get to about 28... this may be all in my imagination though

Whatever works! :thumbup: ;)