I think I have the spacer, the person who had the bike before me must have put a lot of force into it and my weedy spanners don't grip enough, it's just the back wheel retention bolts, not the cassette
Do you mean the nuts on the axle? What problem are they causing? If they aren't tightning anymore, it means that the dropups are compressed because of too much force. 25-30nm should be about enough force to tighten those nuts. If you mean the cassette lockring, then you'll need a cassette lockringspanner like this one: http://www.cecilwalker.com.au/images/cassettetool.jpg
Ah, ok. I decent socket wrenh should do that no problem, but again you'll need a cassette spanner from there on. I think I'd better go to sleep!lol
You'll have to explain the gear thing a bit better (+/- pictures), I really don't understand what you mean. If it's a 5-speed cassette, there should be 5 sprockets and 4 spacers (one between each sprocket and the next), OR each sprocket will have a shoulder on it: (Edit: Whoops, those sprockets have separate spacers - but I think you can understand from that?) If they're not like that then there's probably a few bits missing. Take pictures of the cassette if possible and any spare bits you have. P.S. I you can't loosen the wheel nuts, try sticking a long pole (scaffold pole if you have one) over the wrench for more leverage.
Eventually managed to get the nuts off the blasted thing. The cassette wasn't put together right so that's why it wasn't working. I just placed the gears on at the right rotations with the correct spacers and then the last one was like a bolt. All back together and the gears work. Gar: how much would you want for the bolt?
Hi Doug. I found a whole stem in the garage with expander bolt. Would most likely fit your bike. Pretty sure yours is the one inch version. Don;t overtighten your headset because this will damage the bearings. You also can't afford to be too hard on these bikes as eveything is so brittle, so take great care with it. I think I must have built a thousand of them.lol As Tomm says, you'll need that spacer, but you can't get 5 speed cassettes, so it's proably a six, or seven speed. On a bike like that there'l be a cluster of sprokets pinned to eachother with the smallest size sprokets as singles. At the very most you'll have 3 spacers. Yea totally right a bit of heavy gauge pole will give you more leaverage. But, standing on it could be a bit risky, so just make sure you've got a frim grip on something to stop the possiblility of wrecking shins!lol I wish I was a mechanic again. Was a much better job than graphic design!!!imo
No, no, no, I dont want anything at all for the bolt, or the whole stem if it's not fitting. Just if you cover the postage that will be no probs. Any other part you might need I may well have, just let me know...
Finally got the part in on Thursday, it was a lot easier to add then I expected. Since it's very wet today I've got a pic of the bike inside. Mine's the red one in front. Not bad for a 99p + £24.99 P&P Bike.
Sorry for the thread necromancy here, but I've had the bike in storage for ages due to exams and I'm due to get it back out again in a couple of weeks. The expander bolt I ordered has the wrong sized "cap" on it so it doesn't get a good grip on the stem, it has a ridge under it which fits directly on top of the stem. Is that right? Since it looks odd?
Any pics? If I can see then I will understand exaclty what you mean. Although not all expamder caps are totally te same. It depends on the top of the stem. If it's what I think you mean, maybe you could file off the ridge?
