I have 2 sets of these disc hubs; one on a mountain bike & one on my cx / commuter bike. They use cartridge bearings. I've had them apart before, and there seem to be super skinny spacers inside one side of the hub--sometimes next to the face of the "inner race" and sometimes next to the outer race, but always on the in board side of the bearing. The numbers and inner vs out race placement of these little spacers is never the same.

So I'm having trouble with a front hub. It sometimes develops a little bit of side to side play. No amount of tightening the locknuts eliminates this problem. Sometimes tightening the quick release solves it for a while (until I remove the wheel again, or it gets ridden another 500 miles). Sometimes getting the locknuts finger tight then getting the quick release tight (do I ever ride with it loose? no) solves the problem for a while. When I disassemble the hub and pop out the bearings, I notice they have a little side-to-side play in them. Is this normal? since it's not a cup & cone design, I have no idea how to get this hub and its bearings dialed in and locked up to eliminate the slight rattling and play.

Any advice from someone familiar with these hubs or with cartridge bearing hubs in general? Any "rules" that I don't know about, or instructions that I need to access (sorry, I've already tried the instructions and contacted SRAM, who said these bearing should last for many many many thousands of miles).

Thanks,
Rich