Originally Posted by
SquidPuppet
One might think that removing the brake shoes would do the trick. I originally thought that too. No shoes, no brakes, right? Well, it doesn't work. As you back pedal and drive the clutch toward the NDS, the internal spring assembly compress TOO much, binds, and prevents the whole clutch assembly from reverse spinning. That prevents backpedaling. I have read about people adding washers under the spring, down inside the clutch body to prevent the binding. It seems to be critical to get the exact right thickness of washer to make it all work. I've never tried it myself.
As I rode around today and my Chris King rear freehub was sticking a bit my thoughts returned to the coaster hub question. And I came to the conclusion that I was wrong is thinking that removing the clutch and brake shoes would result in a freewheeling hub. It would work only once, the first time the clutch spiraled off the driver's helical splines it might not return and therefore drive the hub shell when pedaling commenced.
Roger reminds us that there was at least one small company offering a replacement internal bit which did do the job. I seem to recall a SunTour spec conversion bit, and since the ST hub was a close copy of a Bendix the bit would work for them too. never installed one though. Andy