Originally Posted by
SkinGriz
The fact that it works “sometimes” means the pawls and balls are probably fine.
1) Use a bunch of solvent that cuts grease. Brakeclean, mineral spirits, acetone, gas, diesel. Work freewheel back and forth. Maybe even submerge it for a while in solvent. You’ll hear the freewheel working again.
2) put synthetic oil in the the seem between the spinning and non spinning parts. Spin and apply spin and apply. Keep doing this until nasty oil comes out the other side. That’s it. Your done. I like synthetic ATF for this type of thing.
I took a freewheel apart once.Never again.
Oh yea... Never use WD40 for this type of thing unless your going to flush the WD40 out. It turns weird and waxy- it’s probably your problem now is WD40.
You won’t use WD40 because it is ”weird and waxy” but you’ll use automatic transmission fluid which contains all kinds of extra additives and is meant to be used in a sealed unit. ATF and motor oil were never designed to be used in open air systems.
WD40 isn’t weird and waxy. It is just solvent with mineral oil in it. The mineral oil is in the same class and of a similar composition to the oil used in TriFlow, 3-in-One oil, or any commercial light mineral oil. Even Phil Tenacious Oil contains the same class of oil and even a similar molecular weight range. The oil is what makes WD40 such a crappy solvent, it’s the residue that it leaves behind. It’s now better but also no worse than any mineral oil that might be used for this application.
Just to be clear (I’ve said this before), I’m no lover of WD40 but I’m not a hater of WD40 either. It works for some applications. For a consumable like a freewheel that is relatively cheap, it’s not going to do any harm. If the freewheel is gummed up, it’s on well on its way towards the recycle bin anyway. Frankly, I’ve spent more time on this thread than I’d ever spend on a Suntour freewheel.