# New Rear Cassette Lots of Bad New Noise



## dciandrew (Apr 7, 2008)

On my CX bike I replaced the rear cassette and now have a crunching/clicking noise while only in the 5th chain ring on down.

I only have single ring in front switched out form a 36 and 42 to a 39 last year and in the back I had a 11-26 which on some of the hills was just not low enough. So I switched to an 11-34 in back (both are Shimano 9 speed cassettes).

Shifting is smooth and In the rack it doesn’t make any noise only while riding it. I would think if I was to have a problem it would have been in the 34t ring since I didn’t adjust the chain length. The noise happens without any real load just easy pedaling in the 20t on down. 

Any ideas?

Thanks,


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## baker921 (Jul 20, 2007)

New cassette, old chain? It's always best to match cassette and chain as they wear together. Your new cassette may also be aligned fractionally differently on the hub. Are you running your single ring on the inside position (allowing you to run bash ring outer?) Try it with the ring on the outside. If this is OK it may point to chain line issues. Have you left the FD on to act as a chain catcher? Check it isn't too far in board catching the chain as it moves across to the higher gears. No help? I'd try new chain, correct length and set up the RD again from scratch.
BTW chainrings attatch to the cranks and the cassette is made up of individual cogs. Good luck.


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## dciandrew (Apr 7, 2008)

Inside ring with bash guard and no front detailer just a plastic chain guide on the inside. I did set up the RD again. Earlier in the year I had my other rim with road tires and its cassette on the bike and all I needed to do was adjust the barrel to align the shift point and when I switched back to my CX rim with the 11-26 cassette just needed to adjust the barrel again. That’s why it’s odd that a new cassette would be so bad.

The only thing besides chain, that I have left to check (ran out of time last night) is to take the cassette back off and make sure that it is aliened square on the hub and that it is tight (I don’t have a way to check torque with the adjustable wrench), even though both cassettes are 9-speed Shimano, maybe they align just slightly different. But it seems so odd that the bigger upper rings work just fine, maybe the lowers are putting on more torque and being farther down on the hub are pulling the cassette at an odd angle.


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## pmt (Aug 4, 2009)

It can shift perfectly yet still need a little adjustment of the rear derailleur. Run it really slowly in the stand while you sit and watch it, and see if any links kinda 'hop' on the teeth. Tweak the adjuster just slightly and see if you can get that out.


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## dciandrew (Apr 7, 2008)

So I played with it yesterday swapping it back to the old cassette and the noise went away. Put the new one back on and back came the noise adjusted the derailleur and still the noise. I checked the cassette and there was some back and forth play on it. Tightened it down more than I think I should have and the cassette still has play, but most of the noise went away.

It's livable now since it’s my CX bike and it’s not much more than a beater anyway. I could have the best cross bike out there and it still wouldn’t help me finish past mid pack.


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## Kerry Irons (Feb 25, 2002)

*Missing spacer?*



dciandrew said:


> So I played with it yesterday swapping it back to the old cassette and the noise went away. Put the new one back on and back came the noise adjusted the derailleur and still the noise. I checked the cassette and there was some back and forth play on it. Tightened it down more than I think I should have and the cassette still has play, but most of the noise went away.
> 
> It's livable now since it’s my CX bike and it’s not much more than a beater anyway. I could have the best cross bike out there and it still wouldn’t help me finish past mid pack.


If the cogs are loose with the lock ring tightened down, it sounds like you (or somebody) left out the spacer that should be installed next to the hub before sliding the cogs onto the freehub body.


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## dciandrew (Apr 7, 2008)

There was no spacer on the freehub, and the old cassette doesn't make the noise never checked it for lateral movement. It seems almost as if the the channels/grooves on the freehub are too loose to mate up with the cassette.


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## Kerry Irons (Feb 25, 2002)

*Checking*



dciandrew said:


> There was no spacer on the freehub, and the old cassette doesn't make the noise never checked it for lateral movement. It seems almost as if the the channels/grooves on the freehub are too loose to mate up with the cassette.


You have not exactly been clear about what is going on, so let's try again.

Are you saying that the cogs are "loose" on the freehub such that you can wiggle individual cogs? If yes, then you are missing that spacer because there is no way there will be any play of this type when the lock ring is properly tightened. If you are saying that the entire freehub body has some play in it (the whole cassette moves when you wiggle it) then this may be the source of your problem. However that doesn't seem likely since you're saying that swapping cogs results in play. 

If indeed swapping cogs results in play then you have some sort of spacer issue that is preventing the lock ring from firmly clamping the cogs onto the freehub body.


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## Max09 (May 3, 2011)

Did your old cassette have a thin metal washer/spacer which goes on the hub prior to putting on your cassette? If it does have this spacer maybe your new cassette does not require it, on the other hand if it does not have the spacer maybe your new cassette requires one.


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## dciandrew (Apr 7, 2008)

The whole cassete has play in it. I never checked the original cassette for play. When I swaped the casettet back and forth without any additinal spacers the orignal casetted was normal. The new cassete had a new lock with it that is smaller since it is for 11T. For the heck of it I put the old lock on and it made no difference as far as the bad sound, but of course when you were on 11T it would rub on the lock.

Do these spacers look like the plastic spacers that came with the cassette or are they much thinner? Since I don't have any of these around, is it a common thickness?


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## CoffeeBean2 (Aug 6, 2005)

Usually it's a metal spacer that, I think, is a common thickness.

Look on the back of your old cassette - sometimes the spacer gets stuck on to the old cassette. That's what happened to me once - put on a new cassette and any time I shifted off of the 17, there were all kinds of noises. I took it to the LBS and they tried all kinds of things before they took of the cassette to look for the spacer. They gave me a new spacer, but when I got home, I looked at the old cassette and the old spacer was stuck to the back of the largest cog.


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## Apexrider (Oct 10, 2011)

If it's a 9spd shimano cassette then you shouldn't need the 1mm spacer. It's only required with shimano 10spd cassette's since these are 1mm narrower.


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## Kerry Irons (Feb 25, 2002)

*Still seeking clarity*



dciandrew said:


> The whole cassete has play in it.


You STILL have not answered my question: "Are you saying that the cogs are "loose" on the freehub such that you can wiggle individual cogs? Are you saying that the entire freehub body has some play in it (the whole cassette moves when you wiggle it)?"

It's really not that hard to be concise in your answers, and until you are, we cannot diagnose your problem. If the freehub body has play in it, then it will behave the same with each different cassette. If you are missing the spacer, then the cogs will be loose with one cassette and not the other.


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## dciandrew (Apr 7, 2008)

The whole cassette has some play not the individual cogs. I looked at the old cassette and it doesn't have a spacer. I looked at an old 10-speed cassette (from a different bike which I've changed three different cassettes and haven't had this problem albeit Sram) and the spacer is built into the first cog. What I'll have to do next is compare the 9-speeds side by side and see if they are different heights.

Unfortunately due to work I won’t be able to do this until after the first race. 

I checked the play on two other bikes one MTB with Sram no play at all and a bike I just bought from a friend and it has some play but less than my CX bike.

This is the cassette I purchased 11/34T.

Amazon.com: Shimano HG50 9 Speed Mountain Bike Cassette: Sports & Outdoors


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## Kerry Irons (Feb 25, 2002)

*Freehub*



dciandrew said:


> The whole cassette has some play not the individual cogs.


If this is the case, then you should have the same amount of play regardless of which stack of cassette cogs you put on. Is this the case? If you have play with one set of cogs but not with another, you have misdiagnosed the problem.


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