jim hughes

No response on C&V so I'll try here.

I have a Maillard Course freewheel from the 70s, in good shape, that never really spun well because the internal bearings were too tight. It seems like it needs another internal 'shim' and I've read that freewheels were occasionally shipped without the optimum number of shims. I don't want to give up on this freewheel, but the right shim is hard to find. In the photo below, the shims are at lower right. I measure inside diameter as 27mm and outside as 30mm.

Booger1

You can try Loose Screws on the net,they might have something.If not,just cut one out of paper,it will be fine.If you want to get all fancy,get some brass shim stock and have at it with the scissors.

bikeman715

try a bikeshop ,they might have a bad freewheel to give away ,which you can use the shims from.

fietsbob

Malliard used to be part of the Fichtel Sachs Group of companies,
before SRAM did a financial take over.. Malliard ARIS freewheels were available ,
parts,
till 90's somewhere
Sram had interest in Sachs producing a rival gripshifting system,
and their internal gear hubs,
but I suppose not in the French Freewheel company.

they have since closed all European production facilities
and are using Taiwan based manufacturing, instead.

FBinNY 

Pardon my total ignorance, but I don't get how you can find yourself needing a shim.

The way these work is that might remove a shim if/when the freewheel develops play because of wear. I can't see how one can become tighter.

I used to sell a ton of freehweels, Regina, SunTour, and Maillard. In the 20-30 years selling these, in numbers running into the 10s of thousands, I've never heard of one needing an additional shim.

Sometimes a freewheel might feel a bit tight when new, but that was always from dried oil/grease and quickly resolved with a few drops of fresh oil.

tomacropod

The guy says his is too tight, he's probably not lying. As it happens, I have a Suntour which is too tight as well. I also have a super-thin shim that came out of a cheap Shimano freewheel (which was too loose). Let me know if you want it, I'm in Australia.

- Joel

FBinNY 

If you really want a shim you can make a very nice .001" shim with a piece of decent paper. Use an existing shim to trace the pattern with an exacto knife, or the corner of a sharp razor knife. Then soak it in oil and use it. It should be the first one in, against the body, so tightening the cone doesn't tear it. Since it's in pure compression it'll last forever, and the oil will keep it from rotting. If you want something nicer you can use a $1.00 bill, but that's about twice as thick.

mrrabbit 

Or use heavy duty aluminum foil (not the regular foil) and trace cut with a razor.

=8-)

fietsbob

like single use aluminum pie plates... mmm pie