# I blew up an Alfine 8!



## Drew Diller (Jan 4, 2010)

I won't have pics in hand for about another week, but I had a "Just Riding Along" this past weekend. I was doing a cruise ride, and I shifted to a harder gear on flat ground, pretty much one of the least risky shifts you can make with this hub.

Suddenly I could pedal neither forward nor backward. I took the shift actuator off the hub just to make sure. Nothing.

One thing I noticed straight away was that a water seal jacket I had installed recently got all tangled in the actuator. It occurred to me that this trail was so flat that I actually reached gear 8, and that prior to riding this weekend, but after the jacket install, I hadn't gone all that fast on the bike. It's entirely possible.

Anyway, the net effect is that the cable was misaligned some. Owners will know that this hub is extremely sensitive to proper cable tune. If I mashed on it while (unknowingly) in between gears... that's bad news.

Shop tells me that unfortunately Shimano no longer sells individual axle units for that hub, so I have to get a whole new hub and either swap the good guts or relace the wheel.

When I get the stuff back next week, I'll take it apart and upload some photos.


----------



## dru (Sep 4, 2006)

Damn man! Bummer for you!

Mine made 2 loud pings a few weeks back while I was downshifting and continuously pedaling up a couple hills. It's been fine since, but there is a small seed of doubt in my mind now. Maybe the 5th gear clutch was hanging up a bit under load, maybe my chain was loose and trying to pop off for a second. 

Why do you not have your blown up hub now? Where is it? 

We all want to see the autopsy! (seriously, that sucks)

Drew


----------



## Drew Diller (Jan 4, 2010)

dru said:


> Why do you not have your blown up hub now? Where is it?
> 
> We all want to see the autopsy! (seriously, that sucks)
> 
> Drew


A few reasons, most important three are:

1) I have a backup NuVinci equipped wheel.
2) I want to give my business to the LBS who was respectful and informative to me. I know I could save $80 if I really wanted to. They said it might be as late as next week for new hub to show up.
3) I'm super busy with day job and extracurricular frame-build-development activities.


----------



## vikb (Sep 7, 2008)

Bummer...


----------



## evandy (Oct 3, 2012)

Man, that's a horrible failure mode. A cable misalignment leading to hub failure? Given that cables stretch over time, that's pretty disturbing.

Good luck to you!


----------



## Drew Diller (Jan 4, 2010)

Yeah. Believe me when I claim that I was pretty vigilant at shifting it correctly.

EDIT - and I checked the 4th gear alignment *every* ride.

After I encouraged my riding buddies to move on without me and I'd safe, if a bit bored, I may or may not have subjected the surrounding trees to a long string of profanity.


----------



## Drew Diller (Jan 4, 2010)

Relevant to the left assembly, which houses all the planetary gearing stuff.
http://tinyurl.com/nqh85fm

Spy anything that doesn't belong? There's a chunk at 5:00.
http://tinyurl.com/pvkty73

Damn it.
http://tinyurl.com/ng9g3e3

But... it's missing three teeth. Here is two of the teeth.
http://tinyurl.com/ped45rs

Where'd the other tooth go, I wonder...

Also, do NOT disassemble the roller clutch on this thing. LOL it was like snakes-in-a-can. *WHEEE!!*

Going to just put the guts of a replacement hub into the intact shell that is still laced up. Will keep the old guts around for further study... just for fun... yes...

EDIT - switched to tinyURLs to kill off string concatenation garbage.


----------

