# Chris King Hub failure?



## ki5ka (Dec 17, 2006)

Those who have experienced it, what does it sound like when a CK starts making noises that lead to failure  I'll wait to describe our experience, not wanting to taint your response...


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## Okayfine (Sep 7, 2010)

AFAIK, I'm the only frequent poster that's had any major issue with a CK rear hub. But it never failed. My problem centered around the driveside bearing being loose in the hub bore; the sound it made was similar to freewheeling.

I wouldn't even bother with trying to diagnose it here. Call CK, they will take care of you. They may not tell you what the problem was or how to prevent it from happening in the future, but they will take care of it.


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## Fleas (Jan 19, 2006)

Failure?

I have one (from 1994) that quit working because of lack of lubrication, but it did not fail. Cleaned + new grease = like new
The symptoms were that it felt like the chain was skipping on the cogs, but it was the engagement in the hub that was skipping. I crashed once during a mighty pedal stroke because of it. 

I am trying to think of which part would just "fail".

-F


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## ki5ka (Dec 17, 2006)

Fleas, Hopefully "failure" was a poor choice of words. I'm a bit gun-shy after our Phil Wood failure last spring on our biking vacation. Ironically, we were doing a repeat of that same biking vacation when this happened.

What you describe sounds exactly what I first thought, the chain skipping on the cogs. Like your experience, it always occurs when under high load, difficult situations. [One slo-mo crash into cactus (not too bad) and one "frozen moment" (frozen because we stopped, thinking something had broken, not because it locked up)].

I started thinking hub after it had happened a few times and I noticed a few things; it seems more abrupt than a chain skip, it is a singular sound, it's considerably louder than usual.

Our hub is only a few months old. I checked the bearings and found no discernible looseness.

Okay, before I call CK I wanted to be a bit more certain it's the hub and not just chain issues because of my bad shifting. Flea's description reinforces my notion that it may in fact be the hub.


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## ki5ka (Dec 17, 2006)

Called CK. Nice folks, as everyone says. Pulled the axle and inspected what I could without pulling the bearings. Nothing obviously amiss. Examined the helical spline and I understand now how a failure there is pretty much impossible. I THINK I understand how the drive ring engages the shell, I see teeth on the edge of the drive ring. It looks like they are pulled up against, I assume, matching teeth on the hub shell. I can imagine the sound that would make if it were not engaging, like your description Okayfine. Seems like a slip here would NOT make the sound I heard, so I'm back to thinking I need to continue working on my shifting skills


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## reamer41 (Mar 26, 2007)

ki5ka said:


> Called CK. Nice folks, as everyone says. Pulled the axle and inspected what I could without pulling the bearings. Nothing obviously amiss. Examined the helical spline and I understand now how a failure there is pretty much impossible. I THINK I understand how the drive ring engages the shell, I see teeth on the edge of the drive ring. It looks like they are pulled up against, I assume, matching teeth on the hub shell. I can imagine the sound that would make if it were not engaging, like your description Okayfine. Seems like a slip here would NOT make the sound I heard, so I'm back to thinking I need to continue working on my shifting skills


After running CK hubs on single and tandem bikes for 15-20 years or so... I had one fail to engage on my single mtb. It sounded like the chain slipping g on the cassette. 
Bottom line: the hub needed to be cleaned and lubed. Problem solved.

Also, loose bearing preload on the two-part axles can cause engagement problems. But brad I VW that loose are Very noticeable.


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