Maxi Car front hub - past the point of no return?

[Smut Pedaller]

I've recently acquired a Jack Taylor Super Tourist tandem, luckily it is in mostly original condition with nearly all the original parts. Over the past few weeks I've been going through the bike, pulling apart all the moving parts and cleaning, regreasing and adjusting as necessary. Through this I've found that they actually have quite a few quirks for what is an English bike. Anyway, the front hub which appears to be the original is a vintage Maxi-Car unit made specifically for tandems. It's more or less the same inside as the ones here http://www.yellowjersey.org/maxtek.html with annular "magneto" bearings. The quirk however is that this specific hub and the fork are made for a wider 110mm spacing, apparently it's a French tandem thing, much like a lot of things about the bike.

I managed to pull mine apart, however unluckily I found that the bearings had gone for an extended swim in some water. The insides were completely full with rust and the bearings were rusted onto the axle making it very difficult for them to be removed. Pulling it apart the cups were quite badly pitted, the balls are far gone as well. The wheel when spinning makes some pretty nasty rumble.

How difficult is it to remove and press new cups in or is it not worth the bother? The E10 Magneto bearings and cups are available on http://simplybearings.co.uk/shop/p42608/E10+Magneto+Bearing+10x28x8mm/product_info.html or alternately NOS sets on eBay.

I'm aware that you could likely just respace a modern tandem hub to 110mm but would like to see if there is anything worth saving?

[Brucey]

I think you have a few options here including;

-lightly regrind the races in situ, fit new balls

-replace the bearings wholesale.

To remove a failed outer race it is sometimes necessary to get the welder out, weld something (anything) to the cup, and then knock it out.

Maxicar hubs are quite nice and worth sorting out; if you can make them good again, do it, I'd say.

cheers

[Vorpal]

It's a little hard to tell from the picture how bad they are, but they don't look too awful. You might be able to just clean up the races with emory cloth and fit new balls? I've done that with old bearings in the past and had them last a good long while. It will probably take a a bit of work, and the smoother you can get the bearing surface (without rounding the edges too much), the longer they are likely to last.

[tatanab]

Put it back together with grinding paste instead of grease. Spin the axle with an electric drill for a couple of minutes. That might be enough to do the job, and if it isn't it has only cost a couple of minutes. Of course it would need new balls after this.

[Smut Pedaller]

Great thanks for the tips, I might try the grinding paste trick. The gouges in the races are quite bad on one side, the pits are about 0.5mm deep or so. Has anyone ever tried filling it with grinding paste and riding it? or does it work through the races too much by riding on it?

[Vorpal]

Grinding paste is for grinding. Don't use it in working bearings.

You might be able to smooth out as much as 0,5 with tatanab's trick (that's a nice one I hadn't heard of before ) If it doesn't work, you can still replace them.

But you will need to clean it carefully and put new bearing balls packed in grease, afterwards, if it does work.

[TonyR]

Just remember if you do the grinding paste trick that you need to be meticulous about cleaning out any remnants of grinding paste. Otherwise a trace of grinding paste over a two hour ride could do more damage than a dollop over two minutes of electric drill.

[Smut Pedaller]

The bearings themselves are far far gone so I thought tatanab's trick might do the job, they should come in handy as a grinding template hehe. I will be replacing the bearings anyway.

[Vorpal]

The bearings themselves are far far gone so I thought tatanab's trick might do the job, they should come in handy as a grinding template hehe. I will be replacing the bearings anyway.

You might get better results if you use new bearing balls. Otherwise, you will grind a groove that is smaller than the new bearing balls you put in for use.

[Vorpal]

You may get a result like this. New bearings won't last long like that.

[tatanab]

Grinding paste- drill. I did that 35 years ago, maybe longer, on a Le Tour/Atom/Maillard double fixed hub. You may know how rough they are when new. It did not achieve Campag smoothness but was still a great improvement and is still in use today.

[Vorpal]

I guess if it doesnæt work, he could try it again with new ones. Still not much time lost.

[Brucey]

Great thanks for the tips, I might try the grinding paste trick. The gouges in the races are quite bad on one side, the pits are about 0.5mm deep or so. Has anyone ever tried filling it with grinding paste and riding it? or does it work through the races too much by riding on it?

if you ride it with GP in the cones end up lopsided.

Much the best thing to do is to put the hub into a lathe, spin it up, and then use a high speed grinder on it as it turns. This way you can make the bearing races have the correct profile, with none of the mismatch possibilities offered by in situ grinding with paste.

cheers

[Smut Pedaller]

I just did a bit of googling on removing cups out of the hub and found this thread...
http://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage/729177-campagnolo-hub-bearing-cup-replacement-pictures-3.html

The guy made his own cup pullers to pull them out of his Campag hub. Looking at the section of the hub it looks like they might be removeable??? Also seeing you can actually get replacement cups this would probably be a better solution if it's doable than grinding down the existing races. Thoughts??

[Brucey]

removing campag bearing inserts is fairly easy. Removing Maxicar ones is rather less easy IIRC because there is no good access to the rear of the bearing insert. Perhaps there is a special tool for this job ( a kind of expanding wedge?) but if so I have never seen it, hence the welding suggestion earlier.

cheers