Cassette tooth out of true?

icebiker

icebiker

JORBA: Morris Trails
JORBA.ORG
I’ve noticed a rotational clicking when pedaling in a particular gear. Traced it to a tooth on my 18T cog. See pics. In the red circle, the chain is on the cog above the 18T (where it supposed to be) but one link rests on top of the tooth of the 18T. (In the green circle, after a slight forward rotation, the chain slides to its proper place behind the suspect tooth. Only happens in this gear. Derailleur is aligned, hanger is not bent, shifting is fine. I suspect I need to either file the tooth down a bit, or bend it outward slightly (though not really sure if that can be done). This is a GX 12 speed 12-50 tooth cassette with about 400 miles on it. The issue isn't affecting the bike’s performance, just my OCD regarding annoying noises. Any ideas?
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Is it visibly bent/out of alignment?
Is that a loose cog, or mounted with the others?

I somehow managed to bend a cog in the lowest 4 gears that were all mounted together. The chain would jump when hitting that section.
Managed to impact adjust it, but if it’s a loose cog, that would have been easier.
 
is it the same link in the chain every time?

offset the chain by 1 tooth and see what happens.
 
My Sram cassette used to do the same thing. The chain would always lift up and click/snap back into place at the same spot on one cog so I took the cassette apart and flattened out the one tooth that was bent and presto no more noise since.
 
FastFreddy said:
My Sram cassette used to do the same thing. The chain would always lift up and click/snap back into place at the same spot on one cog so I took the cassette apart and flattened out the one tooth that was bent and presto no more noise since.
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I don't think the 12sp cassette can be disassembled.

maybe get a needle nose in there and do what you suggest ??
 
w_b said:
Honestly I don’t think any professionals are going to be filing it impact adjusting cassette teeth. They will sell you new. And honestly they should. He wants advice on a ghetto fix. I say go for it. Or get used to the noise.
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Youre right👍🏻
 
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Patrick said:
I don't think the 12sp cassette can be disassembled.

maybe get a needle nose in there and do what you suggest ??
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I think you're correct and I might be thinking of the 11sp cassette on my old bike which had long 2mm screws that almost look like rivets holding it together. In any case I would probably just find the offending tooth and tweak it a bit with a small flat blade screw driver.
 
Thanks all. Tried the screwdriver trick and the needle nose approach already. Tooth is too hard. Will see if the cassette comes apart and give that a shot.
 
do you have any margin left adjusting the cable (or AXS settings) ? Moving the derailleur a tiny bit to the left may work, as long as it doesn’t affect other gears shifting off course.
 
icebiker said:
Thanks all. Tried the screwdriver trick and the needle nose approach already. Tooth is too hard. Will see if the cassette comes apart and give that a shot.
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gx 12 speed cassettes do NOT come apart, at least not in a non destructive method.
 
serviceguy said:
do you have any margin left adjusting the cable (or AXS settings) ? Moving the derailleur a tiny bit to the left may work, as long as it doesn’t affect other gears shifting off course.
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Bingo! Turns out all I needed was an Allen. Cable had developed slack. A decent amount actually, so I reset the cable and adjusted accordingly. 12 sp spacing is pretty tight so a hair makes a difference. All good now. Thanks again.
 
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icebiker said:
Bingo! Turns out all I needed was an Allen. Cable had developed slack. A decent amount actually, so I reset the cable and adjusted accordingly. 12 sp spacing is pretty tight so a hai makes a difference. All good now. Thanks again.
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Since we have that resolved, maybe get some T9 on that chain 🤓
 
icebiker said:
Bingo! Turns out all I needed was an Allen. Cable had developed slack. A decent amount actually, so I reset the cable and adjusted accordingly. 12 sp spacing is pretty tight so a hai makes a difference. All good now. Thanks again.
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Great, glad you had it figured out. When approaching a problem I like to try the free, less intrusive solutions first and only if they don’t work go grab the hammer. I would consider changing the cable for extra caution.
 
I somehow bent a tooth or two on my XT cassette. I'd like to save it since cassettes are hard to come by nowadays.
 
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