Originally Posted by pastorbobnlnh

@plonz I just serviced a 7 speed Sachs over the weekend and have serviced dozens more in the past. The one which I just did came "locked" in that it would not spin or freewheel--- so it was really quiet.

There could be several things causing the lack of noise but the reason which I have seen most often on this model is that Sachs used an abundance of grease on assembly, which has a tendency to turn into "peanut butter" over the decades. This grease which is light brown and is very sticky tends to move beyond the races and the caged bearings to the pawls and the ratchet teeth. Eventually the pawls can stick and not operate at all.

Open it up, clean out all the old grease, place a light coating of synthetic grease in the races before re-installing the caged bearings, add a drop of good machine oil on the pawl pivots, and maybe rub the same oil on the ratchet teeth. You will be good to go and enjoy the "tat-tat-tat-tat----" of some happy pawls.