milnerpt

So with the help of the local used bike store's free rack, Ive accumulated some old wheels to practice some hub overhauls. I think I have a method down pretty well, but even have a few questions after consulting my texts:

Does it really matter which side of the hub you remove with your cone wrenches on the rear hub, or doesnt it matter as long as you dont move the othrside for spacing purposes?

After pulling the guts out, I typically end up using some diluted degreaser on the axle/cones, and saturate inside the hub/racers and wipe it as clean as I can get (then dry it out). I know I should just usenew bearings, but have been just cleaning them as well.

I use phil wood (the green grease) on the axle, fill the racers maybe 1/2 to 1/3 of the way with grease and pop the bearings in there

(now the big question) So reassembling and tightening the cones is the important thing in my head. I hand thread on the cone, then use the cone wrench to make it tight enough so there is no lateral play, and spins nice n smooth. The problem I have, is when I put the spacers back on, then the last nut, to tighen the nut with the cone - I have been using my cone wrench and the appropriate wrench on the nut, and turn the nut onto the cone. Problem is, it also ends up turning the cone a little, loosening it. Should I be trying to tighten that last nut by using a wrench with the OTHER side nut, to avoid that cone from loosening?

Retro Grouch 

Yeah. It generally takes me at least a couple of tries to get the bearing preload right and I've overhauled a bunch of hubs. There's an axel vise thing that's designed to do what you're saying but I generally just clamp the opposite side locknut into my bench vise.

alecw35

on free hubs and some others you take the cones from the non drive side as they sit to far in to get the cone spanner on

operator

If the adjustment is a tiny bit too loose after you've done everything else - it's easy to fix. 2, 17mm cone wrenches on both locknuts and turn 'em in just a tiny bit.

QR hubs should have a tiny bit of play in them for it to not be too tight when on the bike. Not true for non-qr hubs. Subtle, but important difference.

kramnnim

I always stick the wheel in my truing stand and clamp down the QR to check the bearing adjustment... Should be no play, but loose enough so that the heavy side of the rim (where the joint is) will be pulled down by gravity...

tellyho

You will need to play with the locknut adjustment to get it right. Rarely does it work for me the very first time. As mentioned above, even after you've cranked the cone and locknut together, you can often move the whole assembly a little with the cone wrench to tweak your adjustment.

On the subject of how tight, I also learned to leave a little play with QRs, but have come to the conclusion that every hub is different. I have many QR hubs that need to have cones tightened all the way; AKA, the QR skewer does not remove the slack. The only way to know is through experimentation.