My city bike doesn't get a huge amount of love or attention and only this weekend I realised the rear deore hub (I guess 7 years old)has about 3-4mm of play. Is it repairable through basic service or would I just be best off investing in some new wheels?
Any advice much appreciated.
might be serviceable, worth a look inside
Probably repairable...strip the hubs, pop some new bearings in, pack with grease, rebuild and off you go. Even if the cup/cones are a bit pitted, it's not going to be a total fail, just not going to run quite as smoothly.
New bearings and some grease will probably do the trick, there will probably be damage to the cones, leaving it running rough. But if you didn't notice the play when riding, you probably won't notice some rough bearings:-)
And while it's apart you may as well check it isn't the freehub body bolt coming loose.
Deore hubs have a habit of the cone nuts coming loose - I'd start there.
I got a Centerlock Deore rear for £7.50 from On One - you're cheaper buying one if they still have them and swapping the hub over, or stripping it completely and swapping everything over if the bearing surfaces are still fine.
I agree, cone nuts come loose quite easily, until one day when you're out the whole thing seizes up and leaves you up the creek.
yeah, I'd buy a cheap replacement hub (as suggested above), and strip it for parts - you can replace the freewheel whilst you're doing hub maintenance.
replace the axle, cones and bearings.
you'll need 13, 15 and 17mm (I think you need the 17 - can anyone confirm??) cone spanners to do it.
I've just done the same on mine, and whilst it's not brand new hub smooth, it's not far off. This is remarkable as i'd been, er, slighlty neglectful of the hub in the last couple of years and it's run with play for a while! it was bad to the point where it was either loose or binding, you couldn't get that fine 'runs free with no play' point.
here for rear hubs:-
http://www.on-one-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Rear_235.html
here for front hubs:-
http://www.on-one-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Front_234.html
Thanks everyone that's top advice, I'll give it a go at the very least I'll familiarise myself with the anatomy of a hub!
You actualy only NEED one cone spanner, the outer ones are perfectly accessible with a normal spanner. I've got a full set though so couldn't tell you which one it is.
Tip: If you sont have a vice to hold the freehub end of the axel in while you rebuild it (and to stop it rotating as you adjust the non-drive-side cone). Duct tape (or otherwise fix) a ring end spanner to the worktop to rest the end of the axel in. It's not perfect but is a lot easier than growing the third arm nececary to adjust them properly!
And dont worry about tiny ammounts of play, the compression of the QR takes up a fraction of a mm. So as long as they run smooth and free off the bike, just check for play at the rim once its in the frame.