Originally Posted by
cyccommute
You can do what you want in terms of a freewheel but, honestly, what's the sense in trying to salvage a freewheel that is already damaged? Take apart the freewheel, corralling all the ball bearings (they are extremely small and easy to lose and there are about a million of them), removing the body from the hub without damaging it, then cutting new slots into a freewheel body that is already broken and reassembling the freewheel seems like a lot of effort for a freewheel that can be easily replaced with something that costs $8 to $15 new.
I rebuilt a freewheel once. It was an interesting experience but taught me that they just aren't rebuilding.
No argument there.
I'm probably a bit older than you so before freehubs came out it was pretty common to service a freewheel, especially the pricier ones.
As I said in one of my previous posts, many shops have a box of old freewheels somewhere in the back and will often just give you one if you ask nicely enough...