NKII Rear Hub Squeak

Tornado said:

Heard from Don. Apparently he penciled in a low item value to help with my costs. So that means $22 extra fee was actually only a DHL "brokerage" handling fee, plus tax on that fee. So basically I paid $70 for DHL shipping on $60 USD item.

Can't get pissed enough to do anything further about it. Just happy to now have the axle and wheel back together with refreshed bearings.

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I've never ever paid a brokerage fee. Refuse to do so , stick to your guns. Specify Gift. Never gave U.P.S. my hard earned cash for this and now DHL has learned. Get pro-active.

Tornado said:

Heard from Don. Apparently he penciled in a low item value to help with my costs. So that means $22 extra fee was actually only a DHL "brokerage" handling fee, plus tax on that fee. So basically I paid $70 for DHL shipping on $60 USD item.

Can't get pissed enough to do anything further about it. Just happy to now have the axle and wheel back together with refreshed bearings.

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I just ordered some parts from Don.... Philippines to NZ
Parts $80.00 US
DHL $48.00 US.....sign of the times we are in now ...

Torontonian said:

I've never ever paid a brokerage fee. Refuse to do so , stick to your guns. Specify Gift. Never gave U.P.S. my hard earned cash for this and now DHL has learned. Get pro-active.

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Sounds like DHL is becoming an extortion bandit........

MichaelB said:

Sounds like DHL is becoming an extortion bandit........

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Refuse to pay. I never have. Ask your sender to specify antique motorcycle parts or best is "gift ".

Torontonian said:

Refuse to pay. I never have. Ask your sender to specify antique motorcycle parts or best is "gift ".

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Refusing to pay means none delivery and potentially return to sender or disposal. There was no duty or import fee hee, just DHL's own 'processing" fee acting as a broker agent. On your behalf to submit the required import docs to border services. Stupidly over priced, but it is what they do legally. There is an option to be your own broker to avoid their fee, but it is an arduous process, requiring colection of the waybill from port of entry, taking it to a border services office to get them to clear the waybill, returning that to DHL's holding site and present and collect the item.

Torontonian said:

Refuse to pay. I never have. Ask your sender to specify antique motorcycle parts or best is "gift ".

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The vendor would putting themselves at quite a big risk of legal repercussions if they did that. It is essentially fraud and tax evasion !

I have the one piece axle. No reason not to get it. Agree about the 'gift' thing. It may work for a one off from a friend offshore but if it is a biz with repeat shipments, the red flag will eventually go up. You are asking too much of the vendor to go this route.
Must say that Pender and DHL are fast with their shipping.

marshg246 said:

Ya, I've been complaining about the ever-increasing cost of shipping. I used to pay Amal 40 GBP no matter what I bought. My last order was 175 GBP! I just received 10 more oil pressure switches from Don and he had to charge me $5 more each to do slightly more than break even due to shipping - makes no sense now for me to sell them unless as a part of a big order.

As bad as that is, in Apr 2022 I bought a 6-pack of 30.5 oz Folgers Classic Roast coffee from Amazon - $42 delivered. Checked yesterday, now it's $86.45 - more than double and the local grocery store is even more.

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Just to make you feel a little better , the company I work for , needs to send different size cut blanks (200 kg of ) air freight, to Switzerland for making our size food cans ,cut plate used for testing 3 new Soudronic body blank welders , so the quote was $17,870 NZD ouch .

Happy to report first test ride was a beauty. No more squeak. Rear brake seems much happier, no pulsing. Still need to dial out some pedal movement but seems like it will take it without pulses returning.
Only item to address, the speedo drive box has once again come in contact with hub cover and gets hot to touch quickly. Last time I cured by carefully pressing the drive in a vice to put the rim of drive further outboard/to the right of the axle opening. Does anyone use a shim for this type of tweaking? I'm thinking the 80 ft-lbs on axle nut/bolt crushes the speedo a bit leading to the cover interference. Used to run 60-70 ft-lbs and it seemed to hold up ok.


Also recieved my proper Euro bend bars and fit them up. For the first time since getting this bike 5 odd yrs) i've got the MC brake lever angled down where I want it as the brake light pressure switch now proper clear from bars. This bar is lower and wider than previous, so more forward body positioning. Bike seems to be handling better than previously, either from wider bars or now properly setup rear wheel. It felt a bit lively in turns before, like I was over steering it and having make corrections in middle of turns. Now it seems smooth and consistent.

Tornado said:

Happy to report first test ride was a beauty. No more squeak. Rear brake seems much happier, no pulsing. Still need to dial out some pedal movement but seems like it will take it without pulses returning.
Only item to address, the speedo drive box has once again come in contact with hub cover and gets hot to touch quickly. Last time I cured by carefully pressing the drive in a vice to put the rim of drive further outboard/to the right of the axle opening. Does anyone use a shim for this type of tweaking? I'm thinking the 80 ft-lbs on axle nut/bolt crushes the speedo a bit leading to the cover interference. Used to run 60-70 ft-lbs and it seemed to hold up ok.

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Strange thing - I've seen speedo drives only on Norton do that - don't know why as once fixed they didn't do it again. It should be dead flat across with the top hat removed. There should be no force on the body to warp it. To fix, make it dead flat and when you put it back together see what is causing it to bow.

marshg246 said:

Strange thing - I've seen speedo drives only on Norton do that

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It happened to my T140's drive gearbox...


...The raised lip isn't a top hat washer but metal not crushed by the inner spacer.

BTW, I don't know where the 80 ft-lb number for the rear axle came from, but a tool such as this was included in the tool kit. 80 ft-lbs?

L.A.B. said:

It happened to my T140's drive gearbox...

...The raised lip isn't a top hat washer but metal not crushed by the inner spacer.

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Doesn't look crushed - looks like the inner spacer was spinning - is that a possibility? Was the housing bowed outward? I took apart a Norton wheel last night with a heavily bowed speedo drive and there was no damage in the center but there was damage where the housing was running against the hub cover. I could find no reason for the bowing or anything wrong with the wheel assembly. The bearings were very bad - not sure if that had anything to do with it.

maylar said:

BTW, I don't know where the 80 ft-lb number for the rear axle came from, but a tool such as this was included in the tool kit. 80 ft-lbs?

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Both the AN "Source" and Old Britts say 80 ft-lb. I commented about that in my Norton Torque page. The workshop manual only says "tighten fully". I use a standard 3/8" drive rachet and pull pretty hard. I'm guessing I use about 40 ft-lbs. Been doing that on every British bike since Iwas 18.

marshg246 said:

Doesn't look crushed - looks like the inner spacer was spinning - is that a possibility?

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No, it is crushed as they often are and the result of subjecting such soft metal to the axle tightening torque.

marshg246 said:

Was the housing bowed outward?

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Bowed outward in the centre? Yes, as a result of the metal being crushed the same as what happens to the Norton speedo drives including my Mk3's drive gearbox that was also visibly crushed internally.

L.A.B. said:

No, it is crushed as they often are and the result of subjecting such soft metal to the axle tightening torque.



Bowed outward in the centre? Yes, as a result of the metal being crushed the same as what happens to the Norton speedo drives including my Mk3's drive gearbox that was also visibly crushed internally.

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Can't say I understand how over tightening causes bowing when there's an equivalent diameter spacer on each side, but maybe that's all it is. I has never happened on any bike I worked on (that I know of) but then I don't tighten anywhere near as tight as I often find them.

Has anyone seen it on any Triumph 650 twin before 1971, any Triumph 500, any BSA, or any Trident?

marshg246 said:

Can't say I understand how over tightening causes bowing when there's an equivalent diameter spacer on each side, but maybe that's all it is.

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There isn't "an equivalent diameter spacer" on the outside.

The T140 spacer washer on the outside has many times the area of the inner spacer (and also backed by the caliper plate of a similar diameter) so it's the inside of the drive gearbox that gets crushed by the much smaller diameter spacer.

L.A.B. said:

No, it is crushed as they often are and the result of subjecting such soft metal to the axle tightening torque.



Bowed outward in the centre? Yes, as a result of the metal being crushed the same as what happens to the Norton speedo drives including my Mk3's drive gearbox that was also visibly crushed internally.

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Not "in the centre" - we're discussing the entire housing bowed to the point of the housing rubbing on the hub cover.

marshg246 said:

Not "in the centre" - we're discussing the entire housing bowed to the point of the housing rubbing on the hub cover.

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You've misunderstood me. My description of the housing bowing outward in the centre obviously results in the rest of the housing bowing inward whichever way you choose to look at it.

L.A.B. said:

There isn't "an equivalent diameter spacer" on the outside.

The T140 spacer washer on the outside has many times the area of the inner spacer (and also backed by the caliper plate of a similar diameter) so it's the inside of the drive gearbox that gets crushed by the much smaller diameter spacer.

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OK, I know nothing about disk rear bikes' speedo drives. The Triumphs I know about have the speedo drive pinched between two spacers with approx. the same inner and outer diameter and no Norton-like axle spacers. I have a large box of speedo drives. All but one Norton drive is bowed, none of hte rest are.