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View Full Version : 20mm axles all the same size?

MantoR
08-11-2006, 07:15 AM
I just recently bought some new wheels and tried to use my old 20mm axle for the front of course. It didn't fit due to being too short, so I bought a generic one. The thing is that it is not a tight fit in the bearings? There is just a little bit of play, but riding around you can REALLY feel it.

Do some hubs have specific axles they use? It is a dimension hub.

The fork is a 2001 Marzocchi z1 QR20
binary visions
08-11-2006, 07:17 AM
The axle is fork specific, not hub specific. You should be able to use any 20mm hub on any 20mm fork as long as you have the original fork axle.

The only exception that I know of is some of the old Marzocchi hubs used a special hub/axle combo.
psychobiker
08-11-2006, 08:36 AM
some hubs like my dee max's have spacers that u have to use (end caps that fit between fork and hub) this is because some 20mm hubs can be changed to fit qr axles (9mm or 12mm) i am not familiar with dimension hubs
Qman
08-11-2006, 09:55 AM
I just recently bought some new wheels and tried to use my old 20mm axle for the front of course. It didn't fit due to being too short, so I bought a generic one. The thing is that it is not a tight fit in the bearings? There is just a little bit of play, but riding around you can REALLY feel it.

Do some hubs have specific axles they use? It is a dimension hub.

The fork is a 2001 Marzocchi z1 QR20

It's a machined part. Usually they don't check every single part. Just every other one or so. If they just changed the turning tool, they may have missed the first piece. Sometimes one gets missed that's out of spec. The tightest QA I ever had to run was on gun parts. Everything else was pretty lax.
Good idea to throw a micrometer on it or at the very least a set of calipers to check and see how far out of tolerance it is compared to another one.
It may have gotten left in the etching tank too long when they ano'd it too.
I'm not sure what the industry standard tolerance is but I'd guess +/-.004" or so.

I keep a pair of digital calipers on my workbench to help eliminate the guess work in such a situation.