Hey everyone, how's it going?
So you've been using your Eagle drivetrain for a while and now in off season it's time for a little bit of TLC.
First of all you would check your chain but right next to that should be the derailleur.
And whether you have the cheaper NX or SX or the more expensive GX, X01, XX1
these are the few things you should do to bring your derailleur back into tip-top shape.
Luckily the maintenance of these SRAM Eagle derailleurs is actually fairly simple
it doesn't require any special tools and the greases that are needed are usually in your toolbox already .
And I will start by saying this: the TYPE 3 roller bearing clutch that they use over here is bulletproof.
I've been using the 2.0, 2.1 previous clutches from SRAM and they never gave me trouble.
That is quite different from the Shimano clutches that you see over here that need constant TLC or maintenance.
and I have a full video on how to do it on my channel make sure you check that out!
I know that this clutch is not adjustable and some of you are going to say that is weak so it causes a lot of chain slap.
It hasn't necessarily been my experience but what about you folks?
How is your experience with these SRAM Eagle clutches?
Do you consider them too weak? Good enough? Let me know what you think I would love to hear.
More expensive versions of these derailleurs use the same clutch so everything I said stands true
and if you have an SX derailleur that one doesn't have a clutch so you don't really have to worry about it.
And that takes me here to where the parallelogram is.
As the derailleur moves up and down the cassette it pivots around these points and you have four on each side.
And believe it or not these can squeal or squeak in time so you might have to pay attention to those as well.
X01 and XX1 seem to use a better type of pivot or a better sealed pivot
but regardless, once a year if nothing else at the end of the season, once you're ready to put the bike away
I would highly recommend to grab a light oil like this TRI-Flo or some sort of a dry formula chain lube
and put a drop at each of those pivots, remember you have four on each side.
Wipe off the extra oil from around the pivots so they don't collect dust
and the last thing to worry about is the jockey wheels on these derailleurs.
For Eagle, the two jockey wheels are different sizes so it's fairly easy to remember which one's which
but in case you don't there's nothing wrong with taking a picture of it with your phone
and that way preventing a senior moment!
And since we're talking SRAM take full advantage of that cage lock
so pull the cage forward, push the button and here we go you have the chain slack right now,
there's no tension and you can finally remove this bottom jockey wheel.
It's usually a good idea to remove one jockey wheel at a time
this bottom one is actually called the TENSION pulley
and the top one is called the GUIDE pulley in the documentation.
And with that loose chain you can take a listen or take a look and see how the jockey spins.
This one is not too bad but it's pretty filthy so I'm going to take it down anyway.
GX X01 and XX1 look like this, that is because they use sealed bearings here on the jockeys
as opposed to these bushings for NX and SX.
And a jockey wheel that needs attention would behave like this if you look carefully this doesn't really spin on its own
and if you could hear it this is pretty rough.
Before you move any further make sure you have your preferred cleaner / degreaser handy.
If you are like me I tend to use isopropyl alcohol most of the time, get the 99% one, much better.
You're gonna need a 3 mm Allen key, you're gonna need either a sharp blade or a pick to open up those bearings
And you're gonna need grease
grease for the bearings and chain dry lube for the bushings
or some people prefer to use really light grease like Slick Honey.
Use your 3mm hex to undo the bolt and hold on to those little caps so they don't fall.
You have one of these caps on each side, one and one and here is your steel bushing.
You can push that out as well and here is everything is ready to be cleaned up.
Wipe everything clean and let it dry.
Time to reach out for the lube, some people just put a drop of this dry chain lube in there.
In my case I'm going to use the light grease for freehubs.
Just going to coat this bushing, push it back in and then put a little bit of grease here on the two sides
Push those caps from the side and this baby is ready to go back .
There isn't a lot of friction that I feel in that bushing and that's how it should be.
But before we reinstall anything let's take a look at this X01 and see how that bottom jockey looks like.
Using the same 3 mm hex key or Allen key just remove that bolt.
You have the sealed bearing right in here, you have these washers on the side and you have the same type of washer over here.
These washers or spacers are the same and here's my bearing which definitely needs some cleaning.
The most important for us is what's under that seal, so take your pick...
So same thing we've done earlier
and spin it a little bit, do this from both sides.
At the end when you are about to dry it out I also use compressed air because that helps me push all this stuff out of it.
Once everything is clean give it a visual inspection
this bearing it's just fine needed to be cleaned, I have everything else cleaned up.
For bearings I usually use this Motorex, put some grease on the bearing
then level it off with your finger
and finally you're gonna grab those seals and push them back in.
Get your bolts ready by putting a drop of Loctite on them and now we have to figure out how to install this back.
If you look carefully, you're going to find the letter L here on the side of the jockey.
This side has to be facing you and also this side is a lot more textured than the other side which is kind of smooth.
So letter L or Lower jockey facing you, slide it right in,
Get your bolt and tighten it to 3 Nm.
Now 3 Newton meters is not a whole lot so don't go crazy here, there you go.
Obviously the NX jockey is installed the same way with the 3 mm bolt
but before I remove the top jockey to clean it up, pay attention to this bolt.
You see the head here facing me. Well the top one is not facing me so I have to remove it from the other side.
Also if you look carefully here on the top jockey right in there you have the letter U.
That might mean upper jockey so make sure you have that facing you when you install this back.
Obviously the process of cleaning this up it's going to be identical with what we've done for the bottom jockey.
Interestingly on these more expensive derailleurs the bolt is installed from he same side
and yes, if you look carefully here on this upper jockey you're gonna see that letter U as well.
Moving back here to my X01 you can see how that top bolt has a lot more meat to thread into over here
That's not the case for the NX or SX.
And also, with this top jockey removed you reveal again the two plates or the two washers
But in this case they are different.
This one that one on top has a bit of a shoulder just like I showed you at the low jockey wheel.
But the one coming underneath, this one doesn't,
so you have the flat one at the bottom, then the jockey, then the one with the shoulder on top.
Obviously reviving the bearing on this top jockey it's no different than what we've done with the bottom jockey
so feel free to follow the same instructions for it.
But if you thought we're done, here's a surprise one for you!
We have one more pulley or roller on these derailleurs, is right here .
And the shifter cable just wraps around it.
If you look carefully here on this X01 and XX1 is the same this is held in place by a bolt
and with a 3 millimeter Allen you can actually remove that and clean up your roller and axle.
In case of the GX, NX and SX you have a rivet here.
However if you want to get fancy you can drill that out and install something like Bike Yoke Shifty
that gives you fancier roller bearing and all kind of smoothness that I've never experienced but I know some of you maybe did.
So yeah, take a look at this one and just make sure that at least it rolls smoothly if nothing else.
Finally, before you release that cage make sure your bottom jockey is properly mated with the chain
remember that's narrow wide, pull forward on the cage, hear the click and here you go you're ready to rip again.
This kind of maintenance should be done maybe at least once a year if you want that smooth and crisp shifting from your drivetrain.
What about you folks? What kind of eagle derailleurs do you use?
Do you maintain them like I showed you here?
I would love to hear your comments!
If you have any tips and tricks for us please let us know in the comments as well.
And if you found this useful make sure you give us a thumbs up it really helps my channel.
I hope you're enjoying your winter wrenching on your bikes and until next time
I hope to see you folks on the trails.
Cheers guys, cheers!