Last week, I did a small rebuild. Some electrical work, replacing the Avid BB7's with el cheapo Chinese dual action brake calipers and some more small things.
Changed the rather fragile Alfine 11 hub/wheel and mounted a Speedhub. (yes, I feel dirty, needed a shower afterward, I feel like a filthy wallet warrior AZ).
But during the benchtesting, I heard a faint squeeky noise from the motor, something that was hidden by the noises the poor, abused Alfine produced. So, I dug into that.
Testing and feeling, I noticed a small amount of play on the pedals.
First tought, the tapered bearings got some wiggle room, just tighten them up, done. Nope....
I already had extra-greased the outside gears when I installed it. As this is one of the often mentioned things on several install video's on Youtube.
The crankshaft has 4 bearings. 2 thrust bearings and 2 needle bearings in pairs. The thrust bearing on the "power" side was still pretty well lubed up. But the 3 others were bone dry. And the needle bearing on the power side, ain't a needle bearing anymore, but a solid block of hardened pins rubbing over a no longer hardened crankshaft.
Regular maintenance is required for every mechanical part, and the normal interval for the better bike stuff is 5000 km or 1 year. I got to 7000km in 18 months.
So Bafang isn't to blame, except on the rather absent maintenance manuals.
Plan for the moment. I have a spare BBS02b 750 motor, mating that with a spare front boom. A grease nipple will give me the option to squeeze in some fresh grease once a while, filling the Bafangs shaft tunnel.
For now, the abused unit will have to run untill I have time to replace the whole.