Just wondering if anyone can offer any insight into my potentially broken Alfine 8 hub before i send it to my LBS tomorrow. Would be good to know if i’m likely to face a big bill 😥

Out yesterday and stopped to let some walkers past (that might be the problem there!). In starting off i felt a funny crunching from the rear alfine 8 hub. After only one revolution of the pedals the cranks now freewheel in both directions albeit roughly.

It feels as though the hub is trying to engage as every so often it will engage slightly and pull the wheel round a little but this is by hand. When i sit on the bike and pedal there is no engagement at all.

After a long walk home i looked at the bike again. All the cables are fine and the hub appears ok externally.

Just wondered if anyone else had experienced anything similar…

Thanks

Its pretty easy to take the gearbox out, plenty of how to’s the Tinternet. Maybe the grease has dried up?

I chaged mine to oil, seems a bit smoother.

http://lockies.blogspot.com/2009/09/shimano-alfine-hub-gear-rebuild.html

I broke an internal cog recently and as you can’t buy small internals seperately I’m sat on a lot of spares should anyone have the same misfortune (£80 for a ring gear!). Though it sounds like your roller clutch isn’t engaging. Give me a shout if they suggest expensive replacements.

Is the sprocket retaining circlip still intact and located correctly?

See post #13 in this thread….
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=544654

Well holy thread ressurection!

I have acquired a non functioning alfine. It appears the bearings in the drive side are corroded – as well as the main ball bearing there appears to be a needle roller as well. the ball baring I should be able to replace as its stock size balls – just a fiddle putting them into the carrier but any clues on the roller bearing under it? appears to be under part 5 and a part of part 11 on this diagramme but part 11 does not look quite like this

http://www.hubstripping.com/shimano-alfine/shimano-alfine-explosion-hub-SG-S500.pdf

Ta for any help

Edit – thats the roller clutch I do believe. any spares avaialble?

TJ – I clicked on this smuggly thinkng – I can help here!
Wrong, I have broken the same part. I’ll double check tonight.

If you send me a photo of the broken bit (assuming you’ve got it) I’ll have a look tonight. I’m back in Scotland next week so can get it in the post/hand it to you then if need be.

Take care,
Col
(email in profile)

Hi

teh rusty main bearing – but I should be able to replace the balls in the carrier

rusty alfine bearing by TandemJeremy, on Flickr

Teh rusty bit I think is the roller clutch

rusty alfine by TandemJeremy, on Flickr
I am also suspicious there is a rusted bearing on that shaft underneath all the remaining bits

TJ – which alfine specific tools have you bothered buying?

There seems to be the big ring spanner – TL-AF10; The right hand cone installation and removal tools – TL-8S11 & TL-AF20 ; and something called the carrier unit tool – TL-8S30. The big ring spanner is not too expensive but the others are quite pricey.

My Alfine (8spd) is in need of some tlc (nothing really wrong, just a bit rough sounding in freewheel, and a couple of the gear changes a little more clunky than they used to be) and it would be good to know which tools are actually needed and which make the job time efficient if you are a professional mechanic doing this a lot.

convert – none. the cover which is what that big ring spanner is for came off by hand, the rest of what I have dismantled didn’t need any special tools

Basic service you only need to take the cluster out and dunk it in oil – the only tool needed is the big ring spanner and as I found out even that is not usually needed

Good news! I’ll have a look at mine later.

http://www.hubstripping.com/shimano-alfine/shimano-alfine-explosion-hub-SG-S500.pdf

Ta for any help

Not that it’s relevant, but just in case you don’t know there’s an S500 and an S501, which look pretty similar, but as I found out last week the S501 guts almost but don’t quite fit in an S500 shell 🙂

/edit Oh and convert, (just in case again) the plastic shell cover has a left-hand thread.

Talking to my LBS today The bike chain – thanks mark! it would appear that both rusty parts are available as spares. I am going to dig into it a bit further as there may be another bearing that has gone but it looks like some spares have been made available – certainly madison has part numbers and prices for them

Had the same with mine – got the replacement parts from SJS cycles (listed on their website), the big ball race thing was a fiver as I recall.

Only problem is that the bit the race sits in is the actual hub inself and mine is pitted – that part isn’t listed as it’s the actual metal lump of hub itself.

it’s certainly a lot smoother with the new race but and I’m hoping it will last until summer when I guess I’ll have to replace the whole hub before it seizes. At that point it will be 5 years old and have worked faultlessly for that entire time with bugger all tlc.

A mate mentioned that it might be possible to have an engineering firm look at milling out the pitted surface and putting an insert in (like there is with semi integrated headsets) for cheaper than a new hub….

Ah – some broken bits fell out of teh middle of it – looks like bits of gear selectors or something. anyone want the bits for spares? all its fit for I think