17 OFF ROAD WHEELS

I bought a set of wheels on eBay a while back. I quickly looked them over when they arrived and then put them away. When I went to use them last week I discovered that there was a broken spoke on the rear wheel and both rims had bad hops!

I replaced the broken spoke, repacked the rear wheel bearings and trued both rims.

After the first ride, the front wheel felt a little loose. When I adjusted the bearings I felt grinding so I pulled the axle and found both cones were shot.

The wheels had new tires and the seller listed them as being in "great condition with a little side wall wear".

The broken spoke plus the loosely adjusted front hub makes me think that the seller was aware of the problems - maybe not???

From now on all eBay purchases get close inspections.

I cut off an axle tube so I could use the cut end as a jig for removing rear wheel bearings with my shop press. It basically ended in disaster with a ruined rear brake backing plate. Thanks to that excursion I'm now going to go with discs in the rear instead of fixing the broken drum brakes. It's a good upgrade, but not necessarily something I was budgeting for at this time.