I received the rear wheel of a Racing 3 from a customer.
One spoke is missing.
It's broken right around where the nipple is flush.
It's fixed.
In the photo it looks like a red spoke, but
it's just reflecting silver.
I mentioned that black spokes could be ordered,
but the customer said a single silver spoke is fine,
so I repaired it with the silver spoke we had in stock.
Though the timeline is a bit out of order,
the shaft rotation was rough, so I removed the freebody to check,
and found that it wasn't the hub bearings that were shot—it was the freebody bearings.
More importantly, the bearings were clearly rusted.
I proposed replacing them to the customer, and they agreed.
Also, the pawl return spring of the freebody wasn't perfectly round either—it had warping—so I replaced that too.
↑The shaft has secondary rust on it.
I removed the outer bearing.
I sprayed it with parts cleaner, but it's completely shot.
The inner bearing wasn't damaged, so I'll clean it and regrease it.
With steel freebodies, the inner bearing usually gets secondary rust,
but this time there's barely any.
The grease packed inside must have been doing its job.
It seems the wheel was left sitting for a long time after the spoke broke,
so dust had accumulated, and
I cleaned the hub body too.
About an hour after I handed over the wheel,
I got a phone call saying
"For some reason, the sprocket lockring won't go on"
"Did you mess up when installing the freebody?"
"I always clean spokes, so that couldn't have happened"
The last comment didn't make much sense,
and we didn't really connect on the lockring issue either before the call ended.
Thinking about it myself,
I figured it was either a 12T top sprocket with an 11T-specific lockring,
or a Shimano 10-speed aluminum freebody lockring
(same thread dimensions as Campagnolo)
on the sprocket that doesn't fit the steel freebody.
But then I looked back at the photos and found the real reason.
↑Same photo as before, but in the upper left,
the threaded portion where the lockring goes on the freebody
is chipped.
This photo is from before the work, so the work didn't cause the chip.
And the bearing removal work wouldn't have applied nearly enough force to cause a chip there anyway.
(Besides, it was already chipped before the work started.)
↑You can see the chip in this photo too.
As for how this happened, my best guess is
"the lockring was tightened hard without the necessary spacer,"
I've actually seen this with TNi Evolite hubs—with a Shimano 11-speed freebody
converted to 10-speed, if you install a 10-speed sprocket without the 1.85mm spacer
and tighten the lockring hard, the thin edge with threads outside the spline area
just snaps right off.
But in that case the freebody is aluminum,
so the tendency would be different with a steel freebody.
Also, the Racing 3 freebody is probably for Shimano 10-speed,
so if a necessary spacer were missing,
it would only be the 1.0mm low spacer.
In any case, the edge is actually chipped,
but I need to state clearly here that this didn't happen because of my work
and that it was already this way when you brought it in.
If there were any problems with freebody installation, the right end nut wouldn't tighten
and there's no way I could have done the centering in the truing work after,
so the freebody installation is fine—I would have explained this on the phone,
but I wasn't in a state of mind to do so,
so I'm putting that here too.
However, I do think it was bad that I didn't notice the chip during the work,
and I have no hard feelings about you questioning me on the phone.
The only real solution is to replace the freebody itself,
but if you bring it back, I've already replaced the spring and bearings,
so I'm prepared to handle it in a way that doesn't waste that work.
Please consider it.
One spoke is missing.
It's broken right around where the nipple is flush.
It's fixed.
In the photo it looks like a red spoke, but
it's just reflecting silver.
I mentioned that black spokes could be ordered,
but the customer said a single silver spoke is fine,
so I repaired it with the silver spoke we had in stock.
Though the timeline is a bit out of order,
the shaft rotation was rough, so I removed the freebody to check,
and found that it wasn't the hub bearings that were shot—it was the freebody bearings.
More importantly, the bearings were clearly rusted.
I proposed replacing them to the customer, and they agreed.
Also, the pawl return spring of the freebody wasn't perfectly round either—it had warping—so I replaced that too.
↑The shaft has secondary rust on it.
I removed the outer bearing.
I sprayed it with parts cleaner, but it's completely shot.
The inner bearing wasn't damaged, so I'll clean it and regrease it.
With steel freebodies, the inner bearing usually gets secondary rust,
but this time there's barely any.
The grease packed inside must have been doing its job.
It seems the wheel was left sitting for a long time after the spoke broke,
so dust had accumulated, and
I cleaned the hub body too.
About an hour after I handed over the wheel,
I got a phone call saying
"For some reason, the sprocket lockring won't go on"
"Did you mess up when installing the freebody?"
"I always clean spokes, so that couldn't have happened"
The last comment didn't make much sense,
and we didn't really connect on the lockring issue either before the call ended.
Thinking about it myself,
I figured it was either a 12T top sprocket with an 11T-specific lockring,
or a Shimano 10-speed aluminum freebody lockring
(same thread dimensions as Campagnolo)
on the sprocket that doesn't fit the steel freebody.
But then I looked back at the photos and found the real reason.
↑Same photo as before, but in the upper left,
the threaded portion where the lockring goes on the freebody
is chipped.
This photo is from before the work, so the work didn't cause the chip.
And the bearing removal work wouldn't have applied nearly enough force to cause a chip there anyway.
(Besides, it was already chipped before the work started.)
↑You can see the chip in this photo too.
As for how this happened, my best guess is
"the lockring was tightened hard without the necessary spacer,"
I've actually seen this with TNi Evolite hubs—with a Shimano 11-speed freebody
converted to 10-speed, if you install a 10-speed sprocket without the 1.85mm spacer
and tighten the lockring hard, the thin edge with threads outside the spline area
just snaps right off.
But in that case the freebody is aluminum,
so the tendency would be different with a steel freebody.
Also, the Racing 3 freebody is probably for Shimano 10-speed,
so if a necessary spacer were missing,
it would only be the 1.0mm low spacer.
In any case, the edge is actually chipped,
but I need to state clearly here that this didn't happen because of my work
and that it was already this way when you brought it in.
If there were any problems with freebody installation, the right end nut wouldn't tighten
and there's no way I could have done the centering in the truing work after,
so the freebody installation is fine—I would have explained this on the phone,
but I wasn't in a state of mind to do so,
so I'm putting that here too.
However, I do think it was bad that I didn't notice the chip during the work,
and I have no hard feelings about you questioning me on the phone.
The only real solution is to replace the freebody itself,
but if you bring it back, I've already replaced the spring and bearings,
so I'm prepared to handle it in a way that doesn't waste that work.
Please consider it.