Bicycle Mechanics - Rear Tire Rubbing

New to biking in general, especially mechanics. I have a Specialized Crosstrail and it seems ive done something to the hub/wheel/chain....

Every time I pedal with any force at all the rear tire rubs on the frame closest to the front sprockets. I dont know what has caused this but sure would like to get it fixed. Its driving me nuts. The only thing I can think of is that when the chain broke the other day and I fixed it ... its now too short. Could that be the cause to make the wheel physically pull to the left and rub when power is applied?

I guess in all i bought the incorrect bike for my needs. Im a bit rough on this bike it seems. A lot going wrong with it to only have it for 5 months and ~350miles.

I think the rear axle is bent as well.... will I need to replace the entire hub?

Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUHLG0wvC1U) is a quick lil video. Its not very clear but if you listen closely you can hear the tire rub on my downward motion of pedaling. Thanks for any help.

I infer that the wheel is correctly positioned, but that forcefully pedalling causes it to cant so that the tire rubs the frame, regardless of whether you're pedalling. Is that the case? If so, it might be that your quick release is not clamping tightly enough and needs to be tightend 1/2 revolution or so.

First be sure that the axle is properly seated in the dropouts. The full weight of the bike should be on the axle at the time the quick release is closed. Don't try this with the bike upside-down.

If the axle is fully seated and the wheel is still off-centered then it is possible that the wheel's dish is off. This can happen when there is insufficient spoke tension. If this is the case then the wheel will be off-centered near the chainstays and seatstays. Tensioning the spokes and truing the wheel will take care of this.

Al

how does one go about truing a wheel? are there tools for it, or can it be done without special tools?

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=81

so there's a special tool. that's what i needed to know. thanks!

http://img.skitch.com/20090814-qdk6qnh9i442y72c2jwkx1pxyx.jpg


Rear Axel was Broke in Half. Whoops

There's something you don't see every day.

Curious, was this hub a freewheel or a freehub type?

Proofide - Really? I thought it would be a common happening.

bikinfool - I dont know enough to answer this correctly.. its a stock Specialized Crosstrail rear wheel.

More common to have axle breakage with freewheel type hubs. Likely a low end hybrid like that indeed came with such. Here's the differences http://www.sheldonbrown.com/free-k7.html

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=21925

Link to Specialized site. Looks like a cassette to me.

I looked at a profile of an older model on bikepedia, was 7 speed, too, guess it was too old an example, now that I look at the video (which hurt my sensibilities more than helped me hear the sound/see the issue). Whatcha been doin' with that bike, jzlharvey?