Tiny Bit of Play in Rear Wheel
 

I recently experienced a broken skewer which left me unable to ride back home. Fortunately, I was relatively nearby.
Anyhow, it broke in the threaded area at the hinged end. It is on my errand/grocery-shopper bike and often lugs 20-40lbs.
I am 160lb.

While the wheel was off, I repacked the relatively new ball bearings & cones, made the appropriate adjustments, and re-installed the wheel.
Now, there is a tiny bit of play when I grab and try to move the wheel from side to side.

The new skewer is pretty tight, but I don't want to overtighten and stress the metal, threads, etc...

Should I place a thin washer in the mix?

Please help! Thanks in advance!

Sounds more like you need to tighten the cones

You need to adjust the cones again. You should feel a tiny bit of play in the axle when the wheel is off the bike, but it will go away once you tighten the QR. If it does not, you need to move them in a little bit. My method is to adjust them finger tight then back off a few degrees before I tighten the lock nut. It can be trial and error. Most of my bikes have sealed bearing hubs now for that reason.

Use this method to adjust: https://www.google.com/search?q=adju...TF-8#kpvalbx=1

If you've assembled the hub correctly, you can use two 17 mm open-end wrenches to tighten the last few degrees.

I have always disliked doing this job because I never get the cones set correctly the first time. But I recently watched that video from Art's Cyclery, and used the method of backing out both cones slightly and got a perfect adjustment.

I use a 7/16" nut over the right side lock nut and install the skewer as tight as it would be on the bike. I adjust the bearings with a slight amount of preload. When the QR is open there is a slight amount of play in the axle that goes away when installed on the bike.
Over sized axles don't much or any play out of the bike and should be adjusted accordingly.

How did you manage to break a skewer while out on a ride?

I managed to twist my skewer with my trailer hitch once, and broke it. :( Now, I frequently have the skewer handle facing to the drive side.

The nearest Dick's Sporting Goods either didn't have spare skewers, or wouldn't sell me one (come back in a week doesn't work when one is stuck beside the road).

So, across the street was a building supply store, and I bought a piece of "allthread", some nuts, and a pile of washers, and managed to ride home.

https://www.bikeforums.net/attachmen...hmentid=470766

https://www.bikeforums.net/bicycle-m...back-home.html

I have heard that you should not have washers with QR because the system depends on the friction between the dropouts and the QR ends to keep the wheel from pulling forward when you are really cranking up a hill.

As others have said, play in the wheel is a bearing adjustment issue, not something to address with the QR.

-Will

Agreed, but I now have much more patience (most particularly in equalizing the threaded axle / dropout spacing). My father demonstrated the job when I was a child back in the early 70s.
I tried it, disliked it and avoided it at all costs. I always thought that there's got to be a better mousetrap. Here I am, almost half century later and I'm still dealing with the same ordeal!

Thanks all! It's all done and ready to roll!

It's so much faster when you do it on a regular basis. Once a year like many of us and you lose "the touch".

I tighten the heck out of the DS cone/lock nut and leave that affixed to the axle when servicing No respacing the axle in the drop outs.

BITD Pro team mechanics had a spare set of dropouts , handy by the truing stands, so as to have all the spare wheels

optimally adjusted & ready to go on the team support car..

Besides the above, check the replacement skewer to be sure it fits your frame properly. Some skewers, QR and non-QR, have nuts that won't quite fit the droput lawyer lips and slow-release wheel removal thwarters. Those "safety" doodads can actually contribute to an unsafe condition if we swap quick releases. If the retaining nut opposite the QR doesn't fit completely inside the lawyer lips, it'll clamp unsecurely on the wrong part of the dropout. That could lead to a bent or broken skewer and worse.

I discovered this recently when I put the wrong QR from my road bike onto my errand bike. The road bike skewer has a fancy designed retaining nut that wouldn't fit inside the errand bike's lawyer lips. I noticed the mismatch when the front brake suddenly jammed against the rim. I knew the brake was adjusted properly so the wheel had to be off somewhere. Sure enough, the mismatched skewer nut kept the wheel from seating correctly. I have some spares so I dug around until I found a nut that correctly fit that bike.

Yeah, maintenance of bearing components can be a chore, but with a little practice it's not too tedious. The hardest part is usually tweaking the cone/cup tension jusssst-right. Usually takes me two or three tries to get it right after tightening the lock ring.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...291cb939d.jpeg

Lock nut must fit inside that recess.

Recess
 

Thanks for that info. I just checked two of my bikes and the recess is non-existent...just flat with grippy edges.