Cranbrook Hub Repair

Greg58

Greg58

Well-Known Member
It seems like a lot of people start with a huffy cranbrook as their first motorbike, the bike I finished for a guy that he never picked up is a cranbrook. The rear hub assembly lacks proper grease from the factory which probably is the cause of most failures. By the time I got this one it had a loose wheel, I disassembled it and greased it several times since I've had it but the bearing cone finally shows wear so I decided to replace it. I found the exact hub assembly from Bens Cycle in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Its a falcon coaster brake hub, at $14.99 and free shipping on the first order I couldn't go wrong. I removed all the internal parts from the new hub and used them in my wheel, they were a perfect fit. The link below is the hub I bought.
https://www.benscycle.com/p-1493-falcon-coaster-brake-hub-36h.aspx
 
Good find, Greg. As you said there are a lot of Cranbrook builds out there and maybe your find will help a lot of folks.
Thanks for sharing your discovery.

Tom
 
That's about the only area that I've had trouble with the Huffy. Like you said, I ended up packing it with Lucas Red-N-Tacky grease, replaced the bearings, and got some quality cone wrenches that'll withstand a little extra 'torquing' to the locknut so the cones don't back out.

I may do an inspection this winter to see how everything is holding up. At least mine came factory fresh with the 12ga spokes.
 
The wheel I repaired has 12 ga spokes also, that's why I wanted to repair and not replace it. One thing I found was the new hub was packed with grease, probably five times the amount that was in the wheel originally.
 
If you remove Retainers and run Loose Balls, the hub should be more reliable because
you can use 1 or more extra balls.

From Sheldon Brown:

http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/bearings.html

Retainers or Loose Balls?

Many parts come with balls in retainers. There are two advantages to the manufacturer for using retainers:

They can use fewer balls, so they actually save money on that.

Assembly is faster and can be done by automated machinery, also saving costs.

Generally, when overhauling hubs or bottom brackets that come with retainers, it is better to use loose balls. It's a bit trickier to install them, but you will generally get better performance and longer component life if you use loose balls.

There are a few exceptions to this, mainly cases where assembly with loose balls is exceptionally difficult. These would include headsets, one-piece-crank bottom brackets, coaster brakes and internal-gear hubs.
 
I remember the loose balls in the Bendix rear wheel, the first time I took one apart I thought it had been damaged. All of the bikes I worked on when I was young had good wheels, probably made in the U.S.A. also.
 
Thanks for the info regarding the Cranny hub replacement parts. May have to order that just to have on standby when my stock hub starts showing wear.
 
Even if your hub has the retainers, it's easy to remove them and add the extra ball(s). This should be done on ANY bearing you find with retainers.
And the single best thing you can do for any coaster brake hub is to keep it WELL PACKED with good high temp grease. It makes a world of difference in braking smoothness and useability as well as hub durability.
 
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