I have had this problem ounce before. Then today I mounted up my spare u-rim and bam........Stuck wheel. Removed bearings and flipped washer. Still stuck. So I then mounted up the sprocket side
spacer, big outer bearing , washer and inner bearing with another spacer in the vice. Just snug everything spun nice. But when I tightened up the vise to simulate the torque of the rear axle guess
what.......................The washer had enough give in it to bend over and touch the outer race of the inner bearing. So I flipped the washer and tried it again. It did the same thing both ways. The cause is
the fact that the small surface of the spacer that fits inside the outer bearing is about a mm shy of touching the washer. ( I have 2 factory, 1 aftermarket and one i just made to try and they all have the
same length.) So this being the case the larger inner race on the outter bearing bends the washer around the smaller inner race of the inner bearing. I suspect that with repeated wheel changes the
washer just gets fatigued enough to give into the 60 lbs torque of the rear axle.
I will make a steel washer as a replacement. But for the hare scramble tomorrow, I just cut off the thin part of the washer. It now spins like butter!
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