Ok, my Shimano hubs came with loose locknuts so I finally got round to dissasembling them, packing with grease, dropping the bearings, stripping, then packing with grease again, then reassembling. 😕

Only trouble is, when I had finished this laborious process I found a little washer left behind – item number four on this exploded diagram:

http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/techdocs/content/cycle/EV/bikecomponents/FH/EV-FH-M756-2099A_v1_m56577569830608935.pdf

Is omitting this washer going to cause anything bad to happen?

don't worry about it, half the stuff in hubs is only put in for fun 😉

your cranks will jam up and rip into your calf and you'll head but the stem and die.

probably

your assembled hub is now a teeny bit shorter than it was, best case: when you clamp your Q/R the frame will close it up. Worst case, your freehub is now that much closer to the frame so your cassette and chain may now touch…

Your brake alignment or shifting might be out a bit.

as mentioned, the hub is nor shorter. it shouldn't affect your brake caliper (assuming discs here), as that is referenced from the LHS of the hub, which is the same relative distance to the left dropout, but the right hand end has effectively moved inboard by the thickness of the washer, so it might affect gear shifting through misalignment caused by the frame having to bend to compensate for the shorter hub. Essentially, your axle effective length is now more like 132mm rather than 135mm.

it's not a big job to put that washer back in – just undo a locknut, slide it on and do up the locknut again, making sure youv'e not knackered bearing preload 🙂

Hmph. Yes, I can see now that the clamping surface will have moved w.r.t. to the cassette. Looks like I will have to do another cup/cone jig before I can ride my bike again. 🙁

Unfortunately that locknut is recessed into the freehub, so I can't get at without removing the axle, as far as I know. Grr.

Try it first. I've got a Kooka hub which was a bit misaglined when I got it so I couldn't shift into the smallest cog. I cured it by swapping a washer from the left to the right.

What you doing taking bits of the drive side? All the guides I've seen and so the way I do it, is to strip from the non drive side. I've yet to take drive side cone, washers and nuts off the axle yet apart from one replaced cone.

Well, it seems that the locknut was never tightened properly on the drive-side – it came loose after a month or two of riding. So I had to strip that side in order to get at them and tighten them, and because the wheel had worked loose the grease had gone a bit gunky so I sorted that out too.

Just place the washer on the end of the axle then until you need/have time to service it again.

Big John's advice is SPOT ON. Great idea.

It'll work perfectly but just remember you have a loose washer on the end of your axle when you take the wheel out/put it back in.

It is indeed very good advice, but I think I will rebuild as soon as I get the chance. I don't trust myself to remember if I get a puncture on a muddy night ride…

Recently bough a road bike where the spacer was left out between the hub and the cassette:
Result? Jockey wheel screw slightly touching spokes when stood up sprinting (ahem…) or climbing. Only sussed it as adjustment of the mech made no difference.
Can't see it being a prob with the greater clearance of MTB wheels/mechs though.

If you don't take the quick release out you won't lose the washer

That is very true.

BigJohn – Member
Just place the washer on the end of the axle then until you need/have time to service it again.

Umm, not so sure this is a good idea. It now means that you have 1.5mm less of axle to support in the frame. Potentially it could chew the frame as less axle sitting in the dropout now.

It doesn't does it?

It will be the same as before the strip-down.

Quite correct, im a fool (although a techincally correct one, as you are adding a spacer where there wasn't before, post strip down).
Sorry, work induced braincell count drop……

Well… the thing is, when I reassembled the hub I was a good boy and made sure I had the same amount of axle either side. Then I found the washer.

Sod it, I will simply rebuild.

Yeah, wont take you a minute now it's all been loosened and you have had a trial run.

🙂