Years ago I got an Evo3 as a present. It was nice but after maybe 100-200km I got quite some play in the axle through the gearbox and I got “strange noises” under “load”.
I was in warranty, so I went the 200km to the dealer and I got it back as good as new.
They told me, that there must something happened during production - they just made some bearings snug and that was it…
I hardly used the bike after that because I had just a short walk to work and getting the bike out of the garage etc. took longer than just walking over.
Now, years after that, I wanted to enjoy some biking again.
It turned out, however, that the play is there again and very seldom that “cracking” sound, too.
Since, back then, the dealer told me, that it was just some bearing which needs to be tightened (my guess was that there are some preloaded bearings somewhere), I thought, that should be a quick fix.
After looking closer and reading about the custom gearbox and such, I’m not so convinced anymore…
Any ideas if this could be a quick fix, or is it better to get a new gearbox?
reading your description several times I’ve got the impression that could be actually two separate issues.
That play in the main axle of your drive will be the main problem (and as far as I know are the bearings inside not preloaded/adjustable).
Just with my second suspect, which means rear hinge, we do have in fact some kind of a “preloaded bearing” - perhaps your mechanic referred to that back then?
However, I’d really like to ask you some questions…as like;
did you already ask your local dealer about gearbox repairment/replacement?
It could be… to be honest, I did not pay too much attention to what he was referring to.
As I said, that was several years ago.
For me, that cracking came from the gearbox, but it could certainly also come from that rear-hinge. To be honest, I tend to get quite some pressure on the pedals… I mean, it’s a bike, right?
I just looked that “rear-hinge” up and if there’s really some nylon washer in that hinge assembly… well… maybe I’d be better off with something from a company doing real engineering…
I did not ask for any replacement/repair up to now and yes, I’m from Austria
)