Broken Ball Bearing
 

Anyone ever break one in their hub? Bought an old Peugeot with a broken bb in front hub, you would think least loaded of the two. I mean sheared right in half broken! Left a couple indentations in the cup. Of course original owner was still riding it around, looked like it had never been maintained, original grease I think! Between that, stuck seat post, stem and fixed side of bottom bracket, its been a real effort to resurrect this thing. Hope it will be worth it!

I don't understand these "did anyone ever" posts, especially when they refer to random events that could have a multitude of causes. I'm not being critical, more like confused. How does it help to know if it's ever happened before, other than perhaps misery loves company? To answer directly - yes, other people have had broken bearings in their hubs. But I wonder if you and others perhaps mean to ask a different question, such as what could be the cause, how to avoid in the future, how common is it.

Some posters think this forum is a chat board -- an easy mistake to make considering some of the threads here.

Some people object to the form of the question, as if that matters much.

I just wonder what the board is if it's not a chat board. Are we some sort of professional scientific technical journal? Should we start adding footnotes to our posts, to indicate where our information can be checked and corroborated? And include a bibliography at the end of each post? And a summary at the beginning?

Good luck with getting anyone to follow that format.

I've seen cleanly split BBs, in old bikes being rebuilt. I think an impact would be a more likely cause than wear, corrosion or age. Maybe a flaw. But I'm not a metallurgist.

Was the BB originally in a retainer cage? Seems I most often see split BBs with the twisted remains of cages. Maybe that makes it more susceptible to impact, more load on one ball.

I have seen worn and corroded BBs, too, with good sized chunks eaten away.

Was that an aluminum seat post in a steel frame, and were you able to free it? I try to remember to check that first when one of those comes in.

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Well I have experience with that. LOL
My SA XL-FDD dyno hub, with 17,000 miles, ATE 4 bearing in a sealed unit. This hub took a some hits on a tour 7 months before and I went for a 90 mile ride on the highway just a couple days before I noticed something wrong. It was feeling strange leaning in a curve and had an intermittent side to side looseness when I was stopped and trying to wiggle it. I was then riding slowly on a 12 mile ride when I finally decided it was seriously bad. But I still rode it home slowly keeping it straight up.

So the next day I took it apart. The crumbs were all stuck on the magnet, 4 of the 11 balls were gone. LOL Everything else had NO lube whatsoever and had no discernable pits or marks.
So I got out the vacuum cleaner to help suck the chips off. I then couldn't find any other scratches or damage. So I went to the industrial bearing warehouse and got some new sealed bearings. I had to unsolder the wire to get it apart. I didn't need a keeper for the magnet that I could tell., still powers fine. Oh, but first I had to make a 33.5 mm hexagon tool with 1/8" a steel plate, to open the soft Alu shell. This hub just did another tour, now 24,000 miles. Sturmey Archer stuff is TOUGH. ha I'm not sure how the hell 4 balls could make all those little bits.

The form of a question does not matter much, if one assumes that a person asking for help has no responsibility to be clear and informative, and if one does not really care about the quality or relevance of the answers.
Your suggestion that this is either a chat board or an absurd alternative is of course a false dichotomy. It's pretty clear above what the function is "If you're having problems with your bicycle, or just need help...drop in here..." However, there is absolutely no rule or prejudice against just having a conversation. It was simply not clear whether the OP just wanted to swap war stories or acquire knowledge.

Asking the goal of a question or for more detail on what will help the OP is being tough? Wow. Did you somehow detect hidden sarcasm or "attitude"?

Serious question - What would you do with such information? Would you overhaul a hub more often specifically to avoid a broken bearing from corrosion? If it's due to a manufacturing defect would you have each bearing tested for faults? Would you be more careful with hub adjustment because that was suggested as a factor in a broken bearing? Is there any reason for focusing on a broken bearing if it's something you've never seen (and probably never heard about)?

Personally, I repeatedly test every individual bearing for strength and quality with a hydraulic press before allowing it anywhere near my bike...

No, it's neither obvious nor true that I think you owe me anything.

Yes, I have seen broken-in-half bearing balls in bicycles.

If it's of any use, I've seen broken (split) bearing balls in hubs more than once. On every occasion, the hub was with practically no grease (very old, completely dried grease, and little left of it, even dry as it was).

I"m guessing that the cones came new too tight (very common). If the bike is a UO-8, bearing quality is not especially good so there may well have been tighter places within the rotation of the axle. The balls may not have come from the same batch and one was slightly larger. Now add rider weight. That large ball gets regularly "squashed". After enough of these, it breaks. (It's also done some damage to the cone.)

I'd buy some new bearings, put them in fresh grease, tighten just until play is gone with the wheel on the bike and the QR tight and ride it. (Note that this means the axle will have a touch of play out of the bike.)

Ben