Dumb question?

[Clint Eastwood]

Wrong advice, bearing nuts are supposed to be snug so as to not wear the bearing out prematurely. Also adjusted properly the bearing will ride/wear on the appropriate bearing surfaces. The bearing nut LOCKNUT should be tight to prevent the bearing nut from overtightening or loosening.
Take no pleasure in correcting you Mr. Wrench but that was just bad advice. You know a lot more than me but you missed on this one, carry on my friend.

So there should be a lock nut against the bearing and another locknut tightened up against that one?

 

[darwin]

The nut that goes next to the bearing is an adjustment nut only. It should be finger tight then maybe an 1/8th of a turn after that. Feel the axle, there should be no play up or down or from in to out. Too tight and it will not roll freely. The nut outside of that nut is the lock nut and should be tight so the adjustment nut doesn't move, needs 2 wrenches to do. Hold the adjustment nut steady while locking the lock nut tight. On the adjustment nut you need a cone wrench to hold it steady, very thin open end wrench. You'll see why. In this hobby 14mm/15mm cone wrenches will serve you well. Not expensive and you don't need the most expensive one to work.

 

[Clint Eastwood]

The nut that goes next to the bearing is an adjustment nut only. It should be finger tight then maybe an 1/8th of a turn after that. Feel the axle, there should be no play up or down or from in to out. Too tight and it will not roll freely. The nut outside of that nut is the lock nut and should be tight so the adjustment nut doesn't move, needs 2 wrenches to do. Hold the adjustment nut steady while locking the lock nut tight. On the adjustment nut you need a cone wrench to hold it steady, very thin open end wrench. You'll see why. In this hobby 14mm/15mm cone wrenches will serve you well. Not expensive and you don't need the most expensive one to work.

These are the type of bearings exposed at the end of the hub

 

[Sidewinder Jerry]

These are the type of bearings exposed at the end of the hub

Looks very similar to the Staton Inc hub I used on the LandRider.

Thread 'Broken Rear Axle' https://motoredbikes.com/threads/broken-rear-axle.45015/

 

[Sidewinder Jerry]

Not to hijack Mr. Eastwood's thread, but I was just wondering something, Jerry: If the cone nut is a little too tight, would that produce friction, and thereby make the sprockets hot?

I'm wondering, because I'm playing around with my recent motorized single speed build,among other things, trying to get both chains' tension correct. I noticed after about a six mile ride both rear sprockets were hot. Not egg frying hot, but to the touch.

I took the wheel off to check the bearings and they were in good condition. The wheel does have a little drag, however.

Whatta ya think?

Anytime you have parts moving at a high speed heat is going to be generated. Remove the engine drive chain. Then hand spin your tire. If it spins freely without any wobble you're in the right spot. If it doesn't spin freely then yes it'll eventually cause problems for you.

 

[darwin]

Notice the 2 nuts in the middle on the top. One is for adjustment, other for locking down the adjustment nut. Notice the flat spots on the adjustment nut, that's why you need a thin cone wrench.

 

[darwin]

Clint, in your pic if that is the hub you have then it's a new design, or high end, dunno. Maybe it's not showing the lock nuts. I've just never seen one like that before. If there's no lock nut needed same principle applies. Don't crank it too tight just snug.

 

[darwin]

My Motobecane has sealed bearings in it, my 1st one. Need to look closer sometime to see how it's setup.

 

[Davey Do]

The coin fell into the slot when darwin mentioned the adjustment/tighten thing! Duh!

When I started my build, the single speed bicycle I used had been hanging in storage for years, and I had to replace a bad rear bearing. So I edited an illustration from the internet and wrote my own assembly instructions as not to forget:

 

[Clint Eastwood]

View attachment 105116Notice the 2 nuts in the middle on the top. One is for adjustment, other for locking down the adjustment nut. Notice the flat spots on the adjustment nut, that's why you need a thin cone wrench.

Yeah it didn't come with any nuts like those two in the middle. And the lock nuts it did come with are an odd they'd type. They're Not standard bicycle axle thread.