Originally Posted by well biked
I'm wondering about something I'll probably have to deal with at some point in the future. I'm building up an early '80's touring bike, and it has Suntour hubs with cartridge bearings (40 spoke rear freewheel hub, 36 spoke front). For now, the hubs spin as smooth as silk, but I've never worked on cartridge bearing hubs before, and I'm wanting to know what I'm in for if and when the bearings go bad.
Those hubs were just great ...in their day...
I would not recommend using the rear one, because cassette Freehubs are superior in every respect to the old thread-on freewheel system.
These hubs are a great example of "if it ain't broke, don't 'fix' it." Other posters have addressed the issue of getting the cartridges out of the hub shell.
If you do need to replace the cartridges, they are a perfectly standard size. If you don't find 'em at your LBS, look in your Yellow Pages under "bearings" to find a local bearing shop, if you live in or near a medium sized city. These are common industrial products.
However, don't try to take the hubs apart unless/until they actually fail (which may be a LOOOOONG time--they're super reliable!)
If you have the model I'm thinking of, the axle locknuts are aluminum, with 4 notches for a special, no longer available wrench. In my experience, even _with_ the special wrench, it is just about impossible to get 'em apart without wrecking the aluminum nuts. SunTour evidently used some pretty powerful Loctite-like thread adhesive, and they're hellaciously tight.
Sheldon "Love/Hates Those Hubs" Brown
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