twobikes

My wife came to be the recipient of a used Wal-Mart mountain bike that she likes. The bearings badly needed adjusting, but I did not have the proper cassette removal tool and did not want to buy one just for this job. So I improvised.

I tapped a screwdriver against the retaining ring on the cassette to loosen it and removed several sprockets and spacers. This gave me enough clearance to reach the locknut on the axle and the top of the spacer collar. There was no way to tighten the locknut against the collar enough to guarantee the bearing cone would not drift into the bearings later, especially given the direction of the cone threads and of rotation on the bearings.

I welded a piece of a 16 penny nail to the side of the spacer collar and filed flats on the other end of the collar. I had to grind the thickness of the nail down a little so the cassette can turn without rubbing on it. But, I was able to get a cone wrench onto the flats of the collar and tighten enough that the bearing cone will not move. Even if it should try to move, the tip of the nail will keep the cone from moving.

DMF 

??? I though the common method was to use the locknut and cone on the non-drive side. You don't have to touch the drive side at all if you grab the axle when turning the cone.

twobikes

I also wanted to take everything apart to clean and regrease the bearings. I already had the axle out before I discovered the cassette tool I have would not work on that bike. That is why I could not do what you suggest. And, my LBS is not so "L", but is over 30 miles away. I could not access the bearing in its mounting ring nor the cone or race. I settled for spraying some WD-40 into the opening above the bearing and pushing new grease through the inside of the hub to the far side with a dowel rod. I used the modification described above to get everything back into working order.