Is it normal to have a lot of side to side play in the lower jockey wheel? Ive been getting a weird buzzing/whirring type noise in only the 36th tooth rear cog, as soon as I downshift to second gear the noise goes and back to silence through the remaining gears......everything else looks normal apart from I noticed the lower jockey wheel has lots of play side to side, !never notived it before and just thought due to the extremes of the 36th it may be causing thr the noise?
Its normal to have play - its built in (about 3mm in total) to aid chainline. You'd need to qualify more what alot is to tell you if its abnormal Im afraid. Try adjusting your btension screw to get rid of the noise.
Cheers ben couldnt remember if the lowers were suppose to be rigid or not, cant say as I noticed that it had movement before but then again ive only checked due to the buzzing type noise
Good call on the b tension screw it could well be that , and it is thst same similar buzzing type noise youd get from it being slightly out, good call will check it out, its not a creak at least but is loud when climbing in 1st only just started doing it maybe had a knock or something
well turns out the bottom jockey wheel is buggered, the lower jockey wheel itself seems to have come away from the centre bearing, hence when in 1st gear only its making a noise due to the chainline and its physically pulling the jockey wheel right over to the cage and rubbing/whirring/buzzing noise
i guess thats what you get for buying cheap slx stuff 😉
Lower jockey wheel should not have any play in it, its only the upper one that has play to help with shifting. However, with the move to 10sp and clutch mechs Shimano have also done away with the play in the upper jockey wheel and that is now fixed as well.
In fact if you want to be pedantic about it (this is STW afterall 😉 )the term 'jockey wheel' only ever applied to the upper one, and now shouldn't be used for that anymore - they should be referred to as 'pulley wheels'.
Perthmtb, you are right on two fronts - the lower is fixed, sorry Oscillate Wildly! and yes its pedantic 😀
yep guys in shop confirmed that it shoudnt have any play at all, you maybe able to 'wobble' it a tiny bit but it shouldnt have play at all, they confirmed mine was goosed! guess it makes sense with the noise as the chains rubbing on the cage in the extreme 36 gear, as the pulley is not running the chain centrally down the cage, its allowing the 36teeth gear to pull the chain right across to touch/rub/buzz against the cage 😉
IIRC one of the differences between SLX and XT is that you get a bearing in XT and a bushing in SLX.