Okay, one more inquiry: I'm getting ready to rebuild at least a couple Komet Super hubs, but I want to be as thorough as reasonably possible when it comes to cleaning and regreasing the parts. According to the Schwinn service manual, I don't have to take this dust cap off unless there's any sign of damage or whatever, but given how old and dirty everything is, I couldn't make a fair assessment of damage. So, I took the dust cap off 2 Komet hubs with a screwdriver, as the service manual said to do. However, doing so bent the dust caps a bit. I figure I might be able to tweak them back into shape, but I don't know. I chose not to remove the dust cap on a third hub, just in case I could clean out all the gunk using my ultrasonic cleaner.
View attachment 1680121
Was it a bad idea to remove the dust caps to get to this bearing on the hubs, and can I reuse the dust cap afterwards if it turns out it's fine? Can I repair this part, and how? Or would it be better to replace it?
View attachment 1680122