Originally Posted by
texaspandj
I decided to overhaul my dura ace 6 speed freewheel. When I took it apart I noticed all the original grease had dried up on the 30 year old freewheel it literally looked like peanut butter. It had enough original grease in it to spin smooth as butter. But since I had it open, I decided to clean it with mineral spirits and put fresh grease and it was good as new. Had I just put oil in, it probably would have been rackety sounding. So I'm glad I rebuilt it or could've left it alone it may have been fine. But if you only use oil with not enough original grease youll probably have to keep using oil through out the life of your freewheel. With grease as long as the freewheel is used on ocassion probably never have to rebuild. Btw I pmd the good Pastor Bob a question about that particular freewheel overhaul, he answered right away and I was good to go.
I would agree with you with an application of conventional light oil but have you ever used Phil's Tenacious Oil? This stuff is aptly named and I've used it on other freewheels in a similar manner with good results (used this method on a winter/ice bike). I'm sure a full overhaul is the best if you have the time and means to do it but if not, the flush and oil method seems to be a good substitute. After the WD-40 and prior to oiling, the thing didn't sound as rackety as I would expect but I knew that over time, if left in this condition, it would start to get noisy or fail to operate normally. Oiling with the Tenacious oil quieted things down a bit and will keep things moving for some time. If it starts to get noisy, I'll just rinse and repeat.