Wheel/disc brake not centred

[Slugmeister]

I own a cannondale touring bike and am a novice mechanic. I recently serviced the rear axle bearing housing. I took the cassette off removed locking nuts both sides by mistake. Removed drive side cone and removed axle. I cleaned the ball bearings, locking nuts, axle and cones with foaming chain cleaner and wiped both bearing housings with a rag. Put everything back on but can't get the drive side locking nut tight anymore. Wheel has no play when secured in with quick release skewer. The problem is now the whole wheel and disc have turned. The very front has gone left a few mil and the very back has gone right a few mil. This means my wheel is going slightly left and the disc brake is rubbing constantly on the outer pad. Not sure at all what's caused it and reluctant to take it to a mechanic as its my transport every day. All help much appreciated. Thankyou

 

[confusedcyclist]

Since your drive side locking nut won't tighten fully, it sounds like your axel is not in its intended position, move it further out drive side before tightening everything. This is your first lesson learned! Always measure up the protruding axel before making changes to locking nuts, so you know how it should go back when you've finished servicing. You might be able to refer to technical manual for your hub online if you are struggling to put it back together correctly, but if that doesn't help you gauge correct axel positioning, you'll need to run through a bit of trial an error until it fits nicely in your dropouts again.

If your axel adjustment doesn't solve your wheel alignment woes, I would also suggest you also double check the wheel is sitting correctly in the dropouts and only tighten the wheel fully in place once your bike is resting on it's wheels on the floor. If you try tighten wheels whilst the bike is upside down, or in a mechanic stand, sometimes you wont get the wheel to sit in the dropouts correctly. The weight of the bike in the correct orientation will help the wheels settle into the correct position in your dropouts, only then should you tighten the QR skewer.

 

[T4tomo]

and once you've done all of the above, you make need to re-centre the disc caliper - basically loosen the caliper bolts, squeeze the disc brake on and retighten bolts. the will make sure its sat square with the disc once the wheel is recentred (above) and sat properly in the drop outs.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

If you have a wheel dishing gauge or know someone who has one. You’ll be able to workout how much you need to move axel to the right. Otherwise just do it a few turns of the thread. Tighten it up, and see how you go. The axel should not protrude out the side of the dropouts, either side, or it won’t tighten properly. Often a problem you see with modern axels and old horizontal dropouts.

 

[Cycleops]

It's not so much where the axel sits in the drop outs, that should be fairly easy to achieve, it's more where the hub sits on the axel. This has been moved to one side by the sound of it which is why it's rubbing on the outer pad only. Try to centre the disc in the caliper by moving the cones each side at the same time so it moves the hub in the desired direction, all the time checking the axle doesn't protrude beyond the outer surface of the drop out.
Good luck.

 

[Ajax Bay]

Loosen the locknuts both ends, adjust the cones (and gently tighten the locknuts back up) and iterate until there's the same length axle sticking out both ends. If you do it in less than 3 goes, you've done well, with added grease. Then tighten the right hand side up tight, and adjust the left hand side so it's a bit slack, with the locknut tight against the cone: which the QR compression will take up. Then do what @T4tomo said.
Reading the OP a little more carefully, might the axle have more thread length one end than the other? And you've inadvertently 'turned it round'?

 

[Slugmeister]

Thankyou for all the advice. I will go and centre the hub and disc brake gradually and tighten the qr with the wheels on the ground. Will report back soon. Thanks again. Really appreciate it