Gettin Shafted!

General
1

Hi

I recently ordered a Kh20 trials, for a friend named Kirk (he doesn’t have internet access) from municycle.com and received it last Friday.

The day we received it, we noticed this clicking, the shaft moving inside the hub – the dreaded keyway slop.

I informed Roland (at municycle.com) about the problem, and he asked if we could repair it ourselves, because we live in South Africa, and he in Germany so it would cost a lot and take time to ship back and forth.

I’ve spoke with Kirk and explained the situation, and what I’ve read up on this (what seems to be a common) problem. And after all this felt a bit more at ease. And decided to go ahead with the retaining compound repair (as explained by john in a previous thread).

Last night we stripped the shaft out of the hub, and were actually appalled, at the condition of the shaft and very bad engineering. The shaft is far from a press fit, and there is what seems to be two “tack” welding marks on two sides of the shaft in-between the keys, as a lame attempt to try widen the shaft to fit in the hub. Some of the keys are badly scratched and dented/pitted.

The shaft slides easily (with lots of play) into the hub until reaching the welding marks. On the inside of the hub on the area that touches the welding the aluminium is all scratched.

We doubt the retaining compound (made by Cat Earthmoving Equip.) we’ve got will fill the size gap. (Kirks got the parts at work today to accurately measure the difference)

After seeing all this, Kirk (and myself) are obviously not very pleased with just repairing it and don’t think its right to have a brand new part in such condition.

Do all the 2004 KH hubs look like this inside?

Have a look at the attached photos, and let us know what you think.
What do you think we should do? What would you do if this was your hub?

In one of the posts from Kris Holm, mentioned trying to repair this problem with epoxy or whatever will not affect the warranty of the part. What is the warranty and how long does it last?

Thank
Shaun (&Kirk)

shaft.jpg
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2

Picture of the hub

hub close up1.jpg
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3

Welding on the shaft

welding on shaft.jpg
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4

YIKES. I would ask roland to take a look at those pics and see what he thinks. Those keys/keyways dont look happy. Good luck.

5

Wait until you hear from someone with hands-on experience with this problem, but it looks like your hub may be too far gone to repair and make it ride-worthy. If this turns out to be the case, you should communicate with Municycle.com on what to do. They owe you a working hub, but shipping/duty costs are high. If your current hub is really bad, they might just ship you a new one. But then again they probably need the bad one to get refunded themselves.

Looks like some manufacturing defects, and the usual assumption “back at the factory” that somehow nobody’s going to ride one of them one-wheeld thangs, so why should it need to be strong? :roll_eyes:

6

shaun, have u sent the pics thru to roland yet?

7

Thanks for the input guys.

Ya, sent and email to roland just before i posted this thread, with these and other pics attached.

He did email me back, saying he will contact his distributor, And i musnt worry they will find a solution, and will let me know ASAP

He didnt comment on the pictures, or wether we should go forward with the repair or hold on.

Just incase you take this the wrong way, Im not trying to put Roland down or anything, I have order other parts previously and my Quax for him, he offer excelent sevice, speedy delivery and my Quax hasnt had any problems whatsoever.

Just wanted to find out if all the kh hubs with the keyway problem, look like this or if this is a bigger problem.

So is there anyone outthere that could tell me, is this more of a problem than the “standard” keywayslop problem. and do all the shafts have these “welding” marks on them?..Roger…Darren…Kris… anyone else?

Thanks
Shaun (&Kirk)

8

I have never personally taken a KH hub apart, much less one of the hubs from that faulty batch that had so many slipping axles. I can’t say if that welding fix was used on other faulty hubs or not. It was not what was done on the good hubs. Steve Howard has some pictures of the good axle in his gallery. See the Dissected KH Hub gallery. And there are no weld marks on that axle.

I’m frankly a little shocked that they would try to salvage that hub by making those weld marks to attempt to make it fit tight. Yikes. It’s not clear whether the axle was machined too small or the hole in the hub body was machined too big. Or maybe a combination of both.

If the axle slips in the hub body with no resistance (until it gets to the weld marks) then it’s going to be too loose of a fit to salvage with Loctite. Loctite can’t fill that big of a gap considering the forces that are put on a hub. Some extra heavy duty super strong epoxy might work. But I would not be willing to go that route on a hub with that much slop because I doubt the epoxy would hold long term, or even short term, with hard riding.

9

KH Hub & Shaft play

So, Roland let us know yesterday that he will, check all his KH stock, and if he has one with out this problem, he will send Kirk a new wheel.

If all his stock has this problem, he will organise a hub&shaft with out the problem & build us a new wheel.

Last night we tried to fix it temporarily with retaining compoud, so Kirk can ride atleast.
Tonight we will see if the temp fix has worked.

later
Shaun