Rear wheel won't spin freely

Burghley

Hi All

A friend approached me about a rear wheel problem, having tried (unsuccessfully) to get three bike shops to take an interest!

Hardtail Saracen mountain bike with cable disc brakes.

Rear wheel hardly spins round when in the bike. However, when the wheel is out it spins freely. When put back in loosely, it also spins freely (so no brake rubbing?), but when the Q/R is tightened up the wheel hardly moves.

My guess is a cracked/broken axle.

Urgent advice please...

Rgds

Pete

msb123

have you had the q/r out and checked that the cones, locknuts etc are properly fitted, tightened etc?

AndyGates

Cracked axle should be obvious: you remove the wheel from the bike and two half-axles fall out in a shower of bearings.

Sounds like cones/locknuts to me, too. Either they're moving, or they're just being squoosh a little and binding up (in which case loosen them maybe an eighth of a turn; you may then have a tiny bit of play in the wheel when it's out of the bike, but that doesn't matter.

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monty_dogcp

Yup - obviously check to make sure the axle hasn't snapped first, but suspect it would feel rough and noisy if it was bust. More likely not enough play in the bearings such that tightening the QR causes them to bind - need to back-off the lock nuts / cones by about quarter turn such that pressure from QR takes up the play.

Burghley

Thanks for all the advice.

Apparently, it was left for repair in one bike shop, but they said that it was "contaminated" brake pads and they couldn't repair it!

Dodgy bearings/cones seems the most simple explanation.

Rgds

Pete

Burghley

Thanks for all the advice.

Apparently, it was left for repair in one bike shop, but they said that it was "contaminated" brake pads and they couldn't repair it!

Dodgy bearings/cones seems the most simple explanation.

Rgds

Pete

cpeachey

I had this problem on the front wheel. The "lawers lips" were causing the axle to bend or the cones to tighten when the QR was tightened as the QR was not sitting flat.
Chris