Lateral play in wheel, even with new bearings – suggestions welcomed!

When servicing the road bike, I noticed that I had a couple of mm of lateral play in the rear wheel. I had already replaced the bearings in the freehub and, despite the main hub bearings feeling OK to the touch, I went ahead and replaced them too – it’s not the first time I’ve had bearings that rotate fine actually have some play in them. But, much to my surprise, the lateral play has not gone away and when I stripped the wheel back down, I can still feel a tiny amount of play when I try to move the axle in the bearing, although I can’t work out exactly where it came from.

The one thing that surprised me when I reassembled it the first time was that the non-drive side bearing went in very, very easily – almost by hand – so I’m concerned that the bearings seats on the hub itself is excessively worn.

These are Planet X carbon wheels from a few years back and, while it wouldn’t be the end of the world to replace them, I’d rather have a crack at fixing them first. My next step will be to get the axle out again and carefully measure and inspect the bearing seats and axle itself.

Does anyone have any suggestions or experience on possible fixes here?

Try some Loctite (or similar) bearing retaining compound  if any of the bearing seats have play in them.

Don’t those wheels have threaded end caps? I think the end caps add some preload to the bearings and then you lock them in place with a little allen key?  I’d refit the end caps, put them in the forks and try again – you may find they’re fine.

Imagine a BB and the cranks preloading the bearing to stop play.

2mm play at the rim won’t create any issues when riding.

Hi all, sorry that I didn’t make it clear – the play was still evident with the wheels fully assembled and the end-caps fitted and tightened up properly. I couldn’t see any obvious way of adjusting the pre-loading the bearings, other than by tightening it up some more.

i think loctite on the bearing seats will be my next plan this evening. Thanks all.

I’ve since removed the new bearings and I’m not happy about the amount of lateral play in them. They are actually identical to the ones that I replaced them with (I didn’t notice this before) so I think they might just be poor tolerance bearings. You can see the lateral play in the bearing itself here:

https://youtu.be/ZFDCKfFIxlM

(Note: the inner race is locked in place on the axle – all of the movement is coming from the bearing itself)

I’ve since spoken to the supplier and showed them this video and they agree that this sucks and I’m swapping them for some non-stainless ABEC5 bearings to see if they go better. If they are made to a better tolerance, I’m sure this will fix it.

Update: ABEC5 bearings arrived and fitted and play is gone. Note to self: stick to better tolerance bearings in the future!