My kid has a 10-15 year old Schwinn mountain bicycle. She has the bike at her home (not nearby). She had a flat tire and happened to be coming to visit so she took off the rear wheel and brought it to me to teach her how to replace the tube. I got the rear wheel and noticed that there is only half of an axle. She had taken off the quick release and "something else came off". When I looked at the wheel hub, there were loose bearings on one side and the remaining portion of the axle was loose on the other. The broke half had fallen out when she took out the quick release. So now I only have half of an axle but need to replace it. I had her roommate measure the length of the part she left behind so I can get an overall length.

How do I do about finding a replacement? Are there identifying marks on a Schwinn hub I can use or is it just a measurement of length and width? Any suggestions?

- Peter

 

The quick release is a shaft that runs through the hollow threaded axle, it has springs, a nut, and the quick release lever. All the nuts and springs fit outside of the frame.

Then the axle has inner and outer bearing raceways, including the sprocket cassette, so if that was taken apart then the bearings could fall out.

Typ the only replaceable parts are the bearings and raceways but unless you know what your buying it's going to be extremely difficult to confirm your buying the correct parts.

My suggestion, take the wheel to a local bike shop and see what they can do, if it's a higher end bike they might have parts, if it's a lower end bike replacing the entire wheel may be the cheapest and simplest solution.