Freewheel Rebuild
 

After reading all the posts recommending NOT to try and rebuild or take apart a Freewheel, I decided to do it anyway. Well, I completly rebuilt my Suntour (Perfect) Freewheel and it works beautifuly. I have no idea what all the fuss is about in regards to taking one apart? I took mine apart and replaced the Pawls, Spring Pins, Springs, and Bearings. Lubed everthing with Super Lube (with Teflon) and reassembled it with zero issues. I now have a like new Freewheel and enjoyed the rebuild. If you have been thinking of rebuilding your freewheel and have hesitated due to everyone saying it's too difficult go for it! It is easy and you end up with a great (like new) Freewheel.

Where did you get the replacement parts? Can you also get new cogs to replace worn ones?

For most riders, freewheels are inexpensive and the cogs wear out first so it isn't worth the time to rebuild them. The job isn't that difficult as you have discovered but it is a bit painstaking to deal with all of those 1/8" bearings.

As for the parts..... A friend of mine had them from a Suntour freewheel he had taken apart years ago and had no use for them so gave them to me. I don't know if you can get replacment parts for them or not. He had them and they were free so that's why I took the chance on the rebuild or I would have just bought a NOS........ I enjoyed doing it and found one of the pawl springs was broken so only one pawl would engage.

I just overhauled a cassette body today myself. Was changing from a 7spd to second-hand MTB 8spd one, and my old one was in better nick, so I used the bearings and double cup from it.

Also, you can often reduce free play in these by removing a shim.

OK, that explains it. Sun Tour (the real Sun Tour, not the current owners of the name) has been out of business since the mid-1990's and I don't think they ever sold freewheel repair parts as separate items, and certainly not to the end-user. So, the only source for parts is to cannibalize another freewheel.

I recall the days when every bike shop had a Sun Tour "Cog Board" with every individual cog they made and you could, within reason, build any configuration freewheel you wished. Indexing and the advent of more and more "speeds" ended that.

Part of the problem is people take them apart without knowing what's involved and a million tiny BB's go everywhere (don't ask me how I know). As HR said parts not generally available and better shifting replacements are readily available, reasonably priced. I've done it, but mostly for fun and experience.

I have the discontinued shimano freehub tool that allows you to take apart a freehub. I ususlly replthe pawl spring with a thicker piano wire spring and put it back together. The heavier spring allows me to pump grease into the freehub when I over haul the hub. I have a DA Ultegra hybrid with over 60k miles on it and it is still going strong.
When shimano went with the freehub for strength and reliability you could change the cogs and customize your cassette. Can't do that nomo with the 9 and ten and some day 14speed cassette. shimano has the patent on that setup.

I have a large quantity of bodies and sprockets (not all sizes or positions) in the winner and winner pro series. Anyone interested can PM me their needs.

Durable aren't they? I have a pair of 7700 (9-speed era) DA hubs that have well over 50,000 miles and nothing has ever been replaced but the bearing balls a few times. The freehub body has gotten a heavy squirt of Tri-Flow with each overhaul and that's the extent of its attention.

Shimano's patents on the 14-speed cassette/freehub and the chain that went with them issued in the early 1990's and they have since expired. Shimano never commercialized the design and there had to be some significant problems or it would have been.

Is that the one requiring an asymmetrical frame? Forget it...

I'm tipping we won't see more than 12 cogs until OLDs increase. Not much point anyway while we're still using 1/2" pitch, since that's prolly more ratios than you know what to do with. But with a shorter pitch chain, those extra gears could be put to good use, making the taller ones closer.

Not just a SunTour cog board, but a SunTour "Winner" cog board, a SunTour "Perfect/8.8.8" cog board, a Regina cog board, a Shimano cog board, an Atom/Maillard cog board, &etc.