How to free up / unfreeze EE axle

[susanne]

The axle on an EE cart I am working on will not turn in the housing.

Any ideas on loosening it up? Take it to a mechanic's shop?

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[Connie Ballard]

Sounds like the bearings are froze up. It could have metal shavings in the housing that holds the bearings. Most hubs have a bearing race...(bearings sealed in a housing)....but some wheels are built with individual bearings in the hub...which sometimes pick up dirt, or sometimes chrome that is on the hub...flakes off and grinds around in the middle kind of fusing with the ball bearings...then they just solidify and lock up.

If you arent familiar with the insides of a hub...it'd be a good idea to call a bike shop...see if they'd take a look at them for you.

They can clean it out, put new bearings in or a sealed bearing race so dirt and debris wont get into the ball bearings.

Whew...ben 13 yrs since I worked for a bike company...spent 18 yrs managing customer service...but some of it comes back to me...LOL

 

[susanne]

Thank you, Connie!

Although I have to admit that I was dumber than dirt on this one!

I was thinking the axle itself turned inside the housing, but, of course, you're right! (Can I blame this on my husband, who's an avid bicyclist and should have known?)

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Its always good to have someone to blame. lol I found it an intersting question tho since I wasn't sure how it was built and if a person could access the bearings to replace them. Good information to have filed away in my head (course I'll never find it again when I need it ,my mind is SUCH a mess lol)

 

[Connie Ballard]

YOU sure can blame your 'spoke-sniffer' husband. I worked for Huffy Bicycles for 18 yrs managed customer service...so had to know pieces/parts and how to fix them cause we'd take about 400,000 calls ayear. Man...we rode a ton in those days...bike 25 miles, all of us would stay at a big hotel, have dinner and dance, up for breakfast...back out on the road....was a good bit younger then. In the bicycle industry...they used to refer to us bicycle enthusiasts as 'spoke sniffers'.

The experience there really comes in handy now with driving carts. Hard to know why it is froze up...but debris is my guess without seeing it.

I was a dealer for Superior Sulky...then for Houghton till they closed. I had a brand new chrome frame Houghton...drove it at the Silver Jubilee with a client horse...1st time in the ring for the horse and that cart...it started squeaking and vibrating like I was running on those 'wake up' strips they put on the side of the highway. Thank Heaven the horse was ok with it...cause it was vibrating my jaws and other things! LOL Then it would be quiet/smooth....then start again. Got out of that class frustrated, client on the rail...$3,000 cart doing that....Tim to the rescue...lol He pulled the wheel...found chunks of chrome where someone had chrome plated the frame all into the axle area....as I drove...the bearings gnawed the chroming off...where they should have been running on smooth steel. He cleaned all the debris out, put grease in to smooth it up and was good rest of the show. Houghton owners were at the show...didnt believe it till we showed her.

Interesting...when people say kid proof, dead broke horse, guarantee he's safe...I always think of all the cominations of things that can happen that could possibly make a horse spook or cart fall apart, etc. Its a huge multiple of parts...and an animal with its own mind, mixed with a world of who knows what can occur. There are really no guarantees in it all. But...it is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUN!!!!!!

Deep thinking over a frozen hub...huh...LOL