# Shimano alfine 8 loose bearings



## vbruun (Aug 15, 2018)

Hi 

I've bought a shimano alfine 8 equipped bike used. The first thing i did was to take the rear wheel apart and, strip the hub and regrease and oil it. 
When I put it back together i couldn't tighten the cone in far enough to remove all wobble in the bearings. 
My solution to this has been to sand the end of the cone down to allow it to move in further before bottoming out. DO you think that the wheel will stay functional like this for a long time or should I just replace the bearings right away? 

The races that I could see all looked fine, when I inspected the wheel.


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## Redlands R&C (Dec 14, 2013)

Did all the bearings make it back into the non drive side cup? Are you sure the main assembly slid all the way back into the hub shell? Something went awry with the re-assembly or it wasn't complete at first.

How was it before the disassembly?


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## vbruun (Aug 15, 2018)

All the bearings Are in a retainer, so I think I would lose all of them or none of Them. I followed a YouTube guide and has since had the wheel apart a few times to check if I missed something. I don't think I did. 
For reference, I ground off about 0,5 mm on the cone, which was enough to take out the wobble when it was bottomed out.


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## Redlands R&C (Dec 14, 2013)

That is interesting.. did the hub have play in it before doing all this work?


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## vbruun (Aug 15, 2018)

Honestly i'm not sure. 
The plan wasn't as noticeable when grabbing the wheel, but There was some when we straghtened the rim. There was almost No grease in the hub when we opened it.


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## vbruun (Aug 15, 2018)

Now I replaced the two easily accessible bearings in the hub and added a hole in the Shelly for ATF in the samt go. Made a great difference to how smoothly the hub ran. I initially added 25 ml ATF to the already grease lubed hub. Then I took it for a spin and drained as much oil/grease mix as I could, about 15 ml. Then I added another 10 ml of AFT, so I guess I'm running combined lube now. The hub is leaking a bit ofte the chain, but has so far staten oiltight on the disc brake side of things. 

It did however not make Any difference to the looseness of the cup and cone bearings in the bike. I have triple - checked the exploded view and All parts Are present, so the verdict from me is worn bearing cups. 
My fix seems to be working, so I won't do more about it.


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## vbruun (Aug 15, 2018)

When I was out on a ride, I noticed that I had not tightened the anti-rotation washers sufficiently because the shifting mechanism rotated when I pedaled hard. 

I rode the bike home quietly and tightened the anti-rotation washers. Now the hub makes a slight creaking noise when I pedal. 

Does anyone know why this might be?


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