I went and had my local bike shop put a new freewheel on my bike today. While he had the wheel off he wiggled the rear axle, told me it was loose, and offered to adjust the bearings. Now my back axle makes a pinging noise while I'm riding. The noise is gone when the bike is on the stand with no weight on the axle. Can this be fixed and how much will it cost?
Could be the bearings are worn, like the other post said. The cones that the bearings spin on could also be pitted (worn), causing the bearings to run over a rough surface. There is also usually a dust shield that can be removed for easier access to the bearings - this is a really soft metal, and if popped out with a screwdriver, could be dimpled (i've seen it happen). Also, as the last guy said, a bent axle would also create that noise. Anyways, if this only started after your hub overhaul recently, I'd bring it back, and they should have no problem looking at it.
The tech really should have looked further. My guess is that the reason your axle was loose is because either your axle is bent, the bearings are toast or your hub is shot. Unfortunately, these things often go hand in hand. Here's the progression in a worst case scenario... 1) The bike is ridden in a manner that causes the axle to bend; 2) With the axle bent, the bearing cones are compressing some of the bearings and crack one or 2 of them; 3) The pieces of the cracked bearings get jammed between the good bearings and also crack those, plus they jam themselves into the races of the hub destroying the bearing surfaces. Yuck.
hi, sounds like your bearing are old..he didn't replace them? bring your bike in to get you rear bearings changed and it should cost like $20
