Rear Wheel Wobble...

Your wheel needs to be trued, which is the spoke nipples need to be tightened/loosened to re-align your rim. If you have never done it, probably best to take it to your local bike shop.

If you want to try to wrench it yourself, you will need a spoke wrench that fits your nipple size (spoke wrenches for bikes come in 3 sizes). Tightening a spoke will pull the rim towards the side that the spoke is on. Loosening a spoke will do the opposite. Unless you have a truing stand, use your brake pads to judge where your rim is wobbling. If you have disc brakes, then you will have to construct a rim gauge of plastic/cardboard and zip tie it to your seat stay.

When you are truing your wheel, never turn a nipple more then half a turn, without doing the opposite to the opposing nipples first. If you tighten one spoke 2 full turns lets say, without loosing the opposite nipples 2 full turns, you will start to affect the up and down truing of the rim, that is you will start to induce a hop or a low spot.

When you are truing your rim, the last thing you need to remain aware of is maintaining even spoke tension. Often if you hit a rim too hard, you will be unable to bring it back into true without having very uneven spoke tension. If one spoke is super tight, and other spokes are extremely loose this will be a problem. Your wheel will not be stable, and will not maintain its' trueness for long, or you could even snap spokes.

Cheers,
Juba

no...thats not what i was saying, it doesnt wobble when spinning (that was the first thing i checked). it wobbles back and forth when its stationary. its kinda hard to explain, almost as if the skewer isnt tightened, and you can wobble it back and forth. except that the skewer is nice and tight. i guess its not something that i can explain very easily or get help with online, so im probably just going to take it to the local shop and ask them about it.

Ah, sorry misunderstood what you meant.

The wobble is from loose cones, assuming you do not have cartridge bearings. The balls from the bearing sit in a cup on the hub body, and the axel has a cone which rides on the balls from the bearing that are in the cup. There is a lock nut which tightens against the cone to keep it in place. You need to tighten the cone up, then snug the locknut in place.

One problem you might have is if you have ridden a loose hub assembly for too long, you might have damaged the surfaces in the cup or on the cone or on the balls (and maybe all of them). Ridding a loose hub assembly leads to scoring, pitting or chipping of the surfaces.

Another remote possibility is you snapped your axel in half. If that is the case, you will need to replace your axel.

If you have cartridge bearings in your hub, it might be that you have worn those bearings out, or your hub is not tightened correctly.

Cheers,
Juba

Juba said:

Your wheel needs to be trued, which is the spoke nipples need to be tightened/loosened to re-align your rim. If you have never done it, probably best to take it to your local bike shop.

If you want to try to wrench it yourself, you will need a spoke wrench that fits your nipple size (spoke wrenches for bikes come in 3 sizes). Tightening a spoke will pull the rim towards the side that the spoke is on. Loosening a spoke will do the opposite. Unless you have a truing stand, use your brake pads to judge where your rim is wobbling. If you have disc brakes, then you will have to construct a rim gauge of plastic/cardboard and zip tie it to your seat stay.

When you are truing your wheel, never turn a nipple more then half a turn, without doing the opposite to the opposing nipples first. If you tighten one spoke 2 full turns lets say, without loosing the opposite nipples 2 full turns, you will start to affect the up and down truing of the rim, that is you will start to induce a hop or a low spot.

When you are truing your rim, the last thing you need to remain aware of is maintaining even spoke tension. Often if you hit a rim too hard, you will be unable to bring it back into true without having very uneven spoke tension. If one spoke is super tight, and other spokes are extremely loose this will be a problem. Your wheel will not be stable, and will not maintain its' trueness for long, or you could even snap spokes.

Cheers,
Juba

BEFORE YOU TOUCH THE SPOKES, JUST CHECK THAT YOUR CONES ARE ADEQUATELY TIGHTENED, NOT TO TIGHT, ENOUGH MAYBE TO STOP THE WOBBLE.

BUT AS FOR THE WHEEL I USUALLY TAKE OFF THE TYRE! REPLACE THE WHEEL BACK ON THE FRAME, TIGHTEN THE WHEEL BACK ON, TIGHTEN UP THE BRAKES THEN I HAVE A GUIDE TO RUN OFF, THEN RUN A PIECE OF INSULATIONTAPE ACROSS THE FRAME SIDE TO SIDE, THEN SIMPLY SPIN THE WHEEL GENTLY, AND EVERYTIME THE WHEEL NOCKS OUT TIGHTEN THE 3 SPOKES NEAREST TO WHERE THE NOCK IS ON THAT SIDE. ENSURE YOU DO THE TAPE OR YOU COULD END UP WITH NO NOCK BUT A BOUNCE SINCE YOU'LL PULL YOUR WHEEL OFF CENTRE. JUST DON'T OVER TIGHTEN, WORK YOUR WAY AROUND SLOWLY UNTIL YOU GET IT PERFECT.