Profile 14mm Mini Cassette Hub Overhaul
Overhauling Profile 14mm Mini Rear Hubs is not terribly complicated. You just need new bearings, 2 7/8″ or 22mm box wrenches, or a couple of medium crescent wrenches, your bike’s axle slots, and a rag.
Overhauling your hubs is not something that needs to be done more than once or twice a year, unless you ride 3 or 4 hours a day, everyday. Then you might need to do it 3 or 4 times a year, but the point is that you shouldn’t take your hubs apart just for the sake of taking your hub apart.
you should inspect all of the hub’s part before you begin to reassemble it, to ensure that the hub will perform as close to new as possible when you’re done. Inspect the hub flanges for cracks, and make sure that the axle doesn’t appear bent, bashed, worn, stripped, or cracked. You should also inspect the ratchet ring for wear. A good rule of thumb is that if your hub isn’t skipping constantly, then your ratchet ring is fine. Overhauling our drivers is covered on this page.
click to enlarge
Mini Rear 14mm Axle Hub parts:
- a. Axle nut and washer (2)
- b. Non-drive side locknut (1)
- c. Non- Drive Cone Spacer (1)
- d. Hub Bearings (mfg #6903) (2)
- e. 14mm Center Axle (1)
- f. Hub Shell (1)
- g. driver spacer (1)
- h. driver (1)
- i. drive-side lock nut (1)
1. Taking a 14mm Profile Mini Cassette Hub apart is simple. Remove the wheel from the frame, and remove the axle nuts and your pegs. Remove one of the locknut, it will most likely be the drive side nut that loosens, but it doesn’t make a huge difference if the non-drive side bolt loosens first.
2. Take a hammer and hit the end of the axle on the side without the lock nut. This should pop the axle through the other side of the hub.
3. You’ll be left with one bearing still in the hub body, and the axle with one bearing and a locknut still on it.
4. If you have a vice, you can clamp the center of the axle, to remove the other locknut. If you don’t have a vice, then you can thread the lock nut back onto the axle about halfway, and then use your axle nut to clamp the axle on the dropout of your frame.
5. Now you can loosen the remaining lock nut and remove the remaining bearing.
6. Slide the axle back through the hub and the bearing that remains in the hub. Hit the axle with the hammer to remove the remaining bearing. Now you can clean all dirt, grease, oil, and debris from the parts of your hub.
7. Inspect your axle for damage to the threads and the bearing seats, and slide the new bearing and the cone spacer onto the non-drive side of the axle. You can use some blue loc-tite on the final few threads where the locknut will sit when it’s fully tightened. If you are installing hub shims, they should slide on before the bearing.
8. Slide the axle into the hub-body.
9. On the drive side, slide the hub shim, if needed, the hub body bearing, and the driver spacer onto the axle.
10. You should probably clean your driver a little better than I did for this exercise. When you’re cleaning, remove the pawls and springs over a light colored rag so that you don’t drop them. Once you’re finished cleaning, slide the driver on the axle.
11. 14mm hubs from before 2007 had a cone spacer and a seperate locknut, newer hubs have a one piece conespacer and lock nut combination. Begin to tighten the driveside locknut down. Once you get to the point where it starts to get snug, make sure that the bearings are aligned properly so that they will go into the hub as smoothly as possible. Continue to tighten the locknut down. You will feel a definite stop when the bearings are fully inserted.
12. Loosen the driveside locknut again, and remove the driver. Re-Install the pawls and springs into the driver. If you have questions on how to do that, click here. Slide the driver back onto the axle, making sure that the driver spacer is still located next to the driveside hub body bearing.
Slowly rotate the driver backwards while pressing the cassette driver towards the center of the hub. If the pawls prove difficult to slip into the ratchet ring, you can use a slim flat-bladed screwdriver to press the pawls down towards the axle. This should allow the driver to be fully inserted into the hub. It should have a definite “click” when you spin the driver backwards, and it should not spin freely when you spin it forwards. If it does not do these things, the pawls are installed backwards.
13. Tighten the drive-side lock-nut down again. Again, you can use a drop or two of blue loc-tite on the final few threads where the locknut will rest.
14. If you feel roughness, but no side to side play, then you need to “shock” the bearings. Hit one side of the axle with your mallet sharply, but not like you’re trying to ring the bell at the county fair. One or two taps on each side should completley seat the bearings if they weren’t seated before. If the hub still feels rough after 3 or 4 attempts at shocking it, start the process over.
Tighten the bolts as you normally would, and check the wheel for side to side play and smoothness. If you have side to side play, then you should start over, paying special attention to the inspection stage. If you still can’t get rid of the side play, contact us, and we’ll get it fixed.
If you are unable to resolve an issue with your hub, we do perform repairs here for a nominal fee. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you run into difficulties. Riding a poorly performing hub is never a good idea.
The principals of overhauling all Profile Front Hubs are basically the same, with axle dimension and cone spacers being the primary difference.
DISCLAIMER: These instructions are provided as a service. The best way to install sealed bearings is always a bearing or arbor press. The methods discussed here are alternatives for the home bike mechanics with home bicycle tools. If you are not careful, you will damage your hubs and bearings. Profile cannot be held responsible for any damage caused by attempts at repair attempted by anyone other than employees of Profile racing.
If you are unsure of your abilities, take your bike to a local bike shop, or contact us at Profile. We are happy to overhaul your hubs for you here. Contact Shane at Profile at 727.391.7370 for details.