Disassemble the Magic Pie wheel

[suprted1]

Hello, is there anyone out there, who has disassembled the wheel ?
I got some bad ball bearings, and need to replace them, but I cant find a way to disassemble the wheel.And I don't wanna push 2 much power on it, before I now where.
I removed all screws, but im still unable to open the wheel.
Its a 26" Magic Pie front wheel.

[Bikemad]

Hi andto the forum.

You might want to check out this post for more details on removing the hub covers.

Alan
 

[Olmen]

I know this is probably a dumb question but here goes: should I remove the casette and brake disk before trying to get the thing opened. If so - how should I go about doing that? Removing the casette, I mean. My normal Shimano-tool (for unscrewing the casette) doesn't seem to fit :-/

Any help would be much appreciated!

[Leslie]

From my understanding and experience from opening the HBS hubs a few times, No there is no need to remove the cassette from the hub housing.

I think you need to be carefull of the wire that lead into the hub as the hole machine edge may be sharp.  If by chance you dissemble the pie you may want to smooth any sharp edges with a roll of sand paper.

To dissemble the HBS hubs I used two bread and butter knives.  I edged the tips of the knives between the magnet ring and side housing and spun the knives around so the blunt sides of the knives were forcing the two parts apart.   There are a few ways I've read how to do this so look around for tips and tricks..

[Olmen]

Thanks for the help. I now managed to get a 1 cm gap between the cover and the rest of the hub. Am I know just supposed to rip / bend / do whatever it takes to get the cover piece looser. I mean it's really stuck hard there. Are the magnets / axle or something else supposed to come loose as well? Or is it only the cover that's supposed to come loose at this point?

Again, some pictures from someone who'd done this succesfully would be of awesome help! I'm really not sure how to move forward here and I don't want to break the thing

[Olmen]

Well i'll be damned! Got it opened! Huzaa! Someone (maybe me) should make a video on this. The secret is to pry it evenly around the edges ;-)

[MonkeyMagic]

Or bash as hard as you possibly can with a mallet (thinking of your wheel not working at the same time) on the other side of the hub and you will pop it off.

I did this the first time I removed the hub casing, I can tell you those things take a MASSIVE beating !

That I should have videoed... Going from gentle feather taps to full blown extended arm windmill style repeated bashing... The windmill style did the job

hehe

[Leslie]

Instead I edged my hub case off gentle and slow moving the knives around and getting it off a little bit at a time. Once the side cover has lost its seat beware of the stator stuck to the magnets.

I only used a blunt instrument once I had removed the magnet ring from the stator with my feet.

[Leslie]

The first thing was to undo the hub housing bolts on the first side. You do not need to take the sprocket off or anything.
Using two bread and butter knives I edged one side off carefully with out any trouble what-so ever.  If this is a problem a little spray lube might help.

Edge the housing off a little at a time, rocks left to right ever so small, and turn it around and edge a bit more.

.

Beware of the formers

The formers are the layered steel parts the windings surround.

Its improbable but not impossible to catch the knife in them and splay the formers apart.  Use the back sides of the bread and butter knives once you get them in between the hub ring and side housing.


 




This was my favorite bit although you don't need to do this it makes it easier to play with and makes easier to get the other side off with out a press,  I didn't like using the hammer while the stator sat inside stuck to the magnets inside the hub ....

Remove the other sides housing bolts after you remove the first hub housing side...

I grabbed either sides of the hub and pushed the stator out with my shoes... Make sure it land on the pillow.








The other side proved a little more difficult so I employed a little help with a wooded chock to protect the axle, a hammer, and used my shoes to take the shock off of the bearings like this.  Bang bang with the hammer and doinge it came off with no damage to the bearings.  If you have to hit harder enough to kill a medium sized animal Id say gets it pressed off at the shops and I did all my work on a cushy lounge so the parts landed on pillows ...








Here we have the stator.  With all the problems Ive had I rather think the quality of both hub and stator is top notch, strong and built to last, its just those damed wires.  Hey be sure to leave enough of the ends of all wires with the colour insulator so you know which one goes where..








To save money and a trip to town, I decided to use and extention lead rated at 10 amps.  My controllers is rated at 30 amps and I think 3 X 10 amps should be fine.










The wire core I'm using are some thicker than the one supplied with the motor. and the insulation is decent so I think things will only improve.







There is no reason metal should cut the rubber, well no more than the sharp copper inside cuts the insulator when the wires are munged..  So before I thread the wire I will file and sand the axle.  When the bike fell the axle ends up with sharp bits of extruding metal.  With a file and small piece of sand medium paper rolled into a flute I work away the sharp edges.









I used my tongue to find any sharp edges. Here is the result after a good polish with steal wool and I found it best to round it from the centre towards the outside and leave the outside of the axle square a little to add more surface area where it is most needed...










TFeeding the wires was difficult thank god I rounded the wire hole out properly.  The sensor wire I see as an issue without insulation so I Twist them tuff alrighty and heat shinked insulator around them.  Twisting takes more room up than just shielding them but its stonger...

I pulled the power wires as far as they could come out from the centre hole and pushing and feeding the insulated sensor array through the centre to the outer axle hole. I used the three power wires to assist the sensor array and got the job done, I will use PVC to protect the wires when im finished.






Now I'm not one who usually needs to test my workmanship nor is my experience with materials immature but here goes with the 5 lb hammer test just for you..  I hit it quite hard 4 times and I was scared that I'd have to do all this again, it was worth the risk...








OUCH..
10 X stronger and resistant to bruising.
In another test I put all my weight onto the PVC wires and held my self off the ground.. Not 100% but none the less, "an improvment".  I noticed a lil brusing on only one wire..







Soldering the power wires was a lil harder than expected as there was a bit of tarnish to eat through if you got some flux tincture, paint it on before you solder.  I cut the old wires and left the bit on the copper winding ends as I didn't want to shorten the coil connections, Blue and green remained the same, brown replaces yellow... 

I think this connection is every bit as important as the battery connection so I did big solder joints and chased all of the air out of the joint, if you nip the old ends off you need to torch and scrape the enamel off the wire. Left plenty of clearance from the hub housing, you should sheild these connection however the new solder joints were somewhat larger.  These solder joints were not going to touch anything so I left them naked. 

I didnt want to fool around using heat shrink insulator as this place may get a little hot