Rebuild a bicycle rear hub

Step 12 Now prepare the axle

You want to be able to adjust bearing preload easily, and if the cone buried in the freehub is loose against it's locknut, you will never get it right.....Here I suggest locking one side of the axle to make adjustment in the present and the future alot easier. Since this is the driveline side, and if you have a derailler hangar adapter instead of it being a dropout-mount, err on the excess slack to be on this side. If this is a bolt-on axle, just try to keep it as centered as is reasonably possible.

Here I used a pair of Vice-Grips to hold the cone as I tightened the locknut against it as firmly as possible. This way I can consider the freehub-side locknut to be as good as the head of a bolt in terms of adjustment. Between locknuts on either side, I want this to be the one to give way last, and act as a semi-permanent part of the axle itself. Once locked, I'll know that wrenching between both locknuts wil always result in the "freehub-opposite" side loosening first.