I noticed some play in the rear shock on my Capra. I have traced it to the shaft end. I noticed that before I took it off one of the spacers was loose and I could rotate it. The top end is solid as, so no problems there. It seems like the axle/pin is slightly longer, by about a mm when the spacers are on the axle/pin. When I took out the top end to check the play on the bottom end there was a lot of movement, however it is not coming from the bushing, it is coming from the loose fitting bolt. It is pretty loose inside the axle.

Questions – should the spacers not be slightly longer than the axle so they press on frame, not the axle it self? These then press everything together to firm things up. It seems like there is a spacer/washer missing somewhere.

Is it normal for the axle to wear out internally? Seems odd to me. My stump jumper was fine after 9 years and this is only 2 years old.

Is the entire mounting/bushing just shagged and would it be better to get a new set up, ie TF tuned one. My worry is that the bolt will still be loose inside that axle as well.

Opinions on what is wrong here or what needs to be done?

I’m trying to visualise the problem but not sure I can. I’ll put it down to my age I guess!

Any chance of posting a pic of what you mean bud?

Its normal for the spacers to be smaller than the axle. In fact its necessary as you need the axle to be tight, but the spacers to have _just enough_ space to run free. 1mm is fine.

No the axle should never wear internally. The bolt shouldn’t need to be the same size, but it helps. Is it showing obvious signs of wear?

Im guessing that the best solution is new hardware and see if that sorts the issue out.

The idea is that the bolt tightens the axle (called a “reducer” sometimes) firmly between the flanges on the frame/ suspension bit, so it doesn’t move. If it has been worn internally by the bolt, then the bolt wasn’t tight enough, or the reducer wasn’t the right length/ gap not quite right. If it has been fretting away at the ends, that will wear away the flanges and might make it more difficult to get properly tight in future, depending on how much flex there is.

. edit – wrong thing talking about, never mind 😀

Now I think about it it must be the bushing as there is no way the axle could move once tightened in the frame. Unless the 34mm gap between the mounting points has “grown”. Need to check again tonight to see what is actually moving! Its driving me mad.

No obvs signs of wear at all, so its a bit odd. Might just change the bushing and see if it fixes it.

Cheers

A picture might help to understand what going on, but I expect it’ll be the bushings wearing somewhere. They are are generally designed to wear before anything else and are regarded as a service item.

Here are some pics.

In the first one there is lateral movement of the pin (not in the bushing) when the bolts are tight. The other end of the shock is not fixed in. Is it normal for there to be some lateral play? It is as tight as I dare do before my torque wrench turns up (carbon frame)

In the second pic you can see the mounting set up with the spacers, pin etc.

It seems to me that the pin is to short by a mm or so as there is a bit of sideways play before the bolts are tightened.

Seems odd to me!

link

link2

Take the axle out from the bush and check its colour. Black is ok. Yellow is borked.

I suspect its probably the eyelet bush wearing. A little side to side play is ok, as there shouldn’t be much side loading anyway.
If you lift the bike gently by the seatpost and put it down again, do you feel a slight knock? If so new eyelet bushing and or mounting bush.