Servicing Campagnolo Zonda hubs

After about 5000km or thereabouts, most of it club rides, some of it in rain, other times in dusty crap conditions, it came to the time to crack open the hubs on my Cinelli and give them a good ol' clean and repack.  I'm used to normal hollow steel axle hubs so this was a slight learning experience for me.  The hubs Here is the disassembly steps for the front and rear hubs.  Campagnolo has a video here

Front hub
1. Lever off the dustcap
2.  Use two 6mm allen keys in each end of the axle to remove the outer locknut. 


3. Then loosen the small 3mm allen key locknut and unscrew the cover.   On reassembly this piece will adjust the bearings by screwing the whole cap clockwise to tighten or anti-clockwise to loosen. Adjust the bearings so there is no play when the wheel is clamped in the fork ends.  This is the same for the rear hub. The small 3mm allen headed bolt acts as a locknut, so be sure to tighten this once you've finished adjusting.
4. Remove the silver retaining ring and the black cone

5. Give the axle a bit of a whack and it should come out the other side

6. Remove the white dust seal to get to the bearings

7. Disassemble the axle, the pic above shows one cone still attached

8. The disassembled hub internals.  Two white dust seals, two black cones, two sets of balls, one silver retaining ring and one hollow axle.

9. Clean everything and wipe it with a clean rag.  Relubricate with your favourite grease and reassemble by going backwards.
 Rear hub

1. Follow the instructions for the front hub to remove the axle and hub internals

2.  Use a wrench and a 6mm allen key to remove the drive side locknut which is reverse threaded

3. This should release the freehub body

4.  There is a cartridge bearing pressed into the freehub body.   This isn't user serviceable and is meant to be removed and replaced when it's worn

5.  This shows the drive side ball bearings and freewheel ratchets, give it a good clean.  You can put more grease here and/or in the pawls to reduce freewheel noise.

6. Clean all the parts

7. Reassemble the freehub body and do the reverse of the disassembly to put it back together again.  If you have trouble putting the freehub body back in the hub shell, try twisting it when you push it in to let the pawls sit inside the shell.

11 comments:

  1. Hi,

    Hoping you can help; i've followed all the steps above but cannot remove the freehub body from the axle? The opposite threaded lock ring in Step 2 comes off fine, but you seem to just show the freehub body in your hand - apparently it comes free easily?! I am not finding it easy and don't want to bend anything? Is there another lock ring somewhere? I cannot see it...
    Does it require a gentle hammer?

    Thanks for your time

    rikmellor@gmail.com

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  2. Hi, from memory you need to push it out, it's a tight fit because the axle supports the cartridge bearings for the freehub body. A little tap shouldn't go astray.

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  3. When you state that "There is a cartridge bearing pressed into the freehub body. This isn't user serviceable and is meant to be removed and replaced when it's worn", do you mean that the bearing is replaced when worn, or that the entire freehub body is replaced when worn?
    Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. Hi, It's likely that you can actually replace the bearing inside the freehub itself by punching it out and finding an exact match, as I haven't found off the shelf replacements for the freehub bearing. I assumed you just replace the freehub entirely because of this, as they don't tend to wear out particularly quickly.

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  4. I don't find out how to remove the silver retaining ring! Do I have to pick it or bend with a screwdriver? How to get it out? With a tweezer?

    So good I see your instructions here containing that ring. It's not in the campa manual and it isn't in the youtube video by them (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu9TnP_tgEw#t=39) http://www.campagnolo.com/media/files/035_69_Technical%20manual_wheels_assembly%20and%20refitting_front_hub_Campagnolo_12-12.pdf

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    Replies
    1. Hi there,
      Are you talking about the silver split ring? It's mentioned in step 15 & 16 where it sits inside the cone. It should come off quite easily from memory as it is a split ring so you should be able to compress it slightly to remove it from the black cone.

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  5. Thank you. Fantastic piece. Very clear instructions. Much appreciated

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  6. Hi man
    great info
    do you know the measure of the bearings on the front hub? are they 6902 or something like that?

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    Replies
    1. Hi, they are not cartridge bearings, rather they are ball bearings in a plastic retainer. Campagnolo sells a kit which has the bearings and cones called the HB-RE100.http://www.totalcycling.com/en/gb/Campagnolo-Hub-Renewing-Kit---HB-RE100/m-20973.aspx

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  7. Very helpful article. I am getting an issue with the pawls in the freehub, my zondas have done 7,700 miles so far, and the drive side hub bearings have been replaced so far. what is happening is after freewheeling I am getting a clang when the pawls reengage. A few questions on this. If I take the freehub off and want to thoroughly clean it, I presume I need to remove the freehub bearings first? What would you recommend to clean it. Then afterwards pack the pawls with grease, anywhere else? No guarantees I won't need to replace the freehub anyway after this of course. One thing I have noticed is the clicking of the ratchett sound freewheeling has stopped at the moment.

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  8. Can anyone shed some light on the part number for front & rear dust caps that fit Zonder Hubs. I've tried HB-BO011 but they are slightly to small.

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