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  • Noisy Alfine – terminal?
  • PhilO
    Free Member

    My old faithful Alfine 8 started making some odd noises on my way home tonight. ’tis fine in gears 1-4, but makes a godaweful racket when freewheeling or back-pedalling in 5-8. Just prior to this, I noticed that it was tending to change straight from 5-7, and visa versa, missing gear 6 completely…

    Time to pop the innards out and have a look, methinks. Anybody else had these symptoms?

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Often yes – have you had it serviced ever?

    They are not maintenance-free, water can destroy the innards.

    PhilO
    Free Member

    2 years old, dipped 3 times so far. The riding round here is pretty mucky at the best of times, so I try to give it an oil dip before and after each winter. So far, I’ve seen no sign of water ingress when I’ve had it open.

    Fingers crossed that nothing’s broken! 😀

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    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Well that sounds hopeful. Good luck!

    imnotverygood
    Full Member

    Mine has done taht since new. It is still going

    PhilO
    Free Member

    Cheers! Good to know that I may be worrying unduly… I have two, and both have been silent so far.

    I have a Rohloff waiting to be built up, so it won’t be a disaster if the Alfine’s u/s, but I was considering putting it on the recumbent so it would be a shame to lose that option.

    T1000
    Free Member

    try rinsing through with degreaser to flush out any aluminium dust…and contaminated grease lurking inside its worth repeatedly doing this to flush anything out

    hopefully you don’t find any bit of nylon or cogs in the debris……

    PhilO
    Free Member

    Update:

    Well, in spite of never having found any contamination before, on this occasion there was quite a lot of mucky brown liquid inside. 🙁 I know it’s been a bad winter, but it was still quite a shock.

    Thoroughly flushed through with GT85, dipped several times in the fancy Shimano oil, and reassembled with lots of fresh grease in the axle bearings… There was some staining of the rolling elements and raceways, but no visible pitting, and I’m hopeful that the damage is minimal and the bearings should lap in again with use. No mechanical debris inside, either. The life expectancy of the hub must have been effected, but it should manage the sort of miles it’s likely to see on the infrequently-used recumbent.

    Fingers crossed, anyway. I haven’t actually test ridden it yet!

    There’s a lesson there: Even if the seals have worked faultlessly to date, you can’t assume that they’ll continue to do so! 😕

    Must get the other bike’s Alfine stripped, pronto. That’s the one that’s had the most use recently, too!

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