Thanks sparkplug. I think I have the cone the right side in. I matched it with the other side that I never took out. They arent that badly screwed up either, sure they (cones and cups) don't look new but its not that they have lots of dents in them. So its not that, there wasn't a single bit of grease in the cups though and the bearings on one side for some reason had become totally brown while the other side were still silvery.

Thanks jyi. Here is what I am doing. Is this correct? This is on a front wheel with quick release.

- Take quick release off, take wheel off bike.
- Spin wheel, hear grating noise
- Take rubber covers off both sides of hub
- Fit 13 inch cone wrench to cone, take locknut off 1 side.
- Unscrew cone off the same side.
- Take extra washer off same side.
- Take bearings off and keep separately
- Take axle out
- Take bearings off other side and keep separately
- Clean all (cones, cups, axle, washers, inside of hub and anything else I can see)
- Regrease both cups well. Put bearings in cup.
- Put axle back in (the side whose locknuts and cone nut i never took out). Bearings dont fall out. Meaning enough grease.

All good so far I think. Now the problem starts.

I try to screw the cone nut back on. It screws on. Now I try and spin the axle though. It spins a bit smoothly. I'm happy. Suddenly though it's stuck and wont move.

I loosen my cone nut and spin. It works. But its just rattling inside. The moment I tighten even a bit, the axle spins for say 3-4 full turns and then doesn't spin any more due to the cone being too tight I imagine. Note that I haven't put the lockbut back on yet.

Hope this explains exactly where I'm stuck and someone can figure out what exactly I should do to fix it