This cracking noise on my bike is driving me mental – locked the suspension out and it is still there; checked all the bolts and they appear to be the right torqued tension and tight – convinced the sound is coming from the rear wheel.
The bearings are all very smooth and like new (new bearings done about 5 months ago), the cassette spin freely but the cracking seems to be when putting pressure on the pedals – sometimes a lot, most of the time not a lot.
Chain is not fouling anything and it changes reasonably smoothly – not as crisp as it was when new, but certainly still shifting around 1 second after button is pressed.
So I figured it might be an issue with the freehub – XD thing – took the cassette off and checked the freehub – added a small amount of grease on the inside of the freehub by the pawls and refitted freehub – everything feels nice and tight/secure. I go to put the cassette on and once on and tightened up, the cassette has some wiggle play in it – hadn’t noticed it before. I take it off and inspect it and the carrier inside the cassette (the bit when the cassette remover goes into), is free to rotate but it has a tiny amount of play in it – I think this is what is making the cassette have some wiggle play once fitted.
Anyway, my question is – is it meant to have some wiggle in it or should it be solid in the cassette? Solid with no play but still able to rotate.
Is it serviceable? Could this play be the cause of my cracking noise? If so, can I give it a pump with grease to see if that solves it? It doesn’t appear to be damaged so I’m unsure if it is the inner part of this piece on the cassette.
Have rebuilt it and taken it for a spin – no cracking noise, gear shifting is crisp and I’ve also removed the loud clicking noise from the freehub as obviously a wee bit more than needed amount of grease in amongst the pawls – it engages perfectly and immediately (like before).
Properly confused about this…I’m not keen on handing it to the LBS without some idea of what is causing it as it could be days of checks and cost mounts up (I’m not expecting the shop not to charge for the investigatory work) until it is found, so if I can narrow it down then it could be fixed sooner.
Cheers.
