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Trying to service a pair of XT (M756) hubs. The rear went fine - new bearings and cones and it's now a lot smoother. The front was going ok until I got to tightening the lock nut. The gap for the spanner onto the cone appears to be just under 2mm wide (before it's tightened), but my cone spanners are all too wide to fit in the gap. I've checked the Shimano techdocs diagram and it appears to be assembled correctly.
Am I missing something, or do I need a special, super thin cone spanner?
Is the brake rotor in the way?
on some hubs you need to tighten the nuts one one end, then pull the axle through and tighten up from the other side. Tends to be on the rear through IIRC where you lock the nuts oin the driveside, pulle the axle through the freehub and hub then tighten off from the non drive-side
How thick are your cone spanners, they're usualy made from thin pressed steel?
Easiest way I found was to do them up with the cone spanenrs so the bearings still had some play, then use a normal spanner to tighten the locknut untill the play was gone. Not much help if you cant get a spanner in at all though.
Brake rotor is not fitted. I disassembled the rotor side - not for any particular reason, just that that one came apart first when I put the spanners on the lock nuts at each side.
The gap for the cone spanner on the side I'm trying to tighten (rotor side) is about 1.6mm, the RH side locknut has 2.1mm gap, and all my cone spanners are about 2.3mm.
Only thing I can think is to try and grind down a cheap con spanner to make it fit!
Now with pictures:
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These are 2 mm thick:
Never come across a cone spanner that isn't 2mm thick. I've got Campag, Cyclo and Park, all 2mm.
I got to the bottom of this in the end - the steel dust shield thingys that sit on the cones had slid outwards partially over the flats on the cone. They were tight enough that trying to wedge in a cone spanner wouldn't shift them, but gentle levering with a screwdriver pushed them back.
Not sure what is supposed to keep them in position though, is it just the friction onto the cone?