Rear Hub Castle Nut loosening- Its got me baffled

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Sun May 25, 2008 7:54 am

I have noticed my rear end develops a squeek/crunch type of noise that is apparent around corners, for ages i thought it was my wheel bearings.

I replaced my wheel bearings, noticing that they didnt look very worn. A few weeks later the noise was back again, so i had a look and the 2 washers (one cone shaped and the other flat) and could see that they had been moving) So i pulled out the cotter pin and was able to tighten the castle nut about 1/4 a turn.

Problem fixed, or so i thought.

A month or so later, same thing happens again, and fixed it the same way. It is now happening on both sides.

Whats going on?

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Sun May 25, 2008 10:17 am

I have found in the past, that 99% of the time when you hear that creaking sounds, it turns out to be the tapped (cone) washer has worn a lip on it and when you tighten it up, it will foul up on this lip (giving the impression that it's tight) and in a couple of days the problem is back

I have found it's best to replace with a new washer but as a temp only, file the lip and see if this fixes the problem first.

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Sun May 25, 2008 11:41 am

Cool, you could be onto something there, i'll give it a look

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed May 28, 2008 11:03 am

My L does this occasionally on the rear left too. Method to solve is big spanner with the pin removed. having the weight off the wheel helps too. All you do is put all your weight on the spanner, bounce afew times and call it a day.

I've had my castle bolt start to shear through the pin once... fun fun.

Good luck with it. I like the tip about the lip RSR 555.

Cheers

Bennie