Hi,

The large one-piece section of my SRAM 10-speed cassette is stuck on the freehub body (Easton R4 hub if it matters). The lockring and first two "loose" sprockets come off easily but the rest appears to be welded on. I'm replacing the cassette so can damage it if really necessary. But don't want to damage the hub.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Tom

the freehub is aluminum? Does it appear to have deformed splines from torquing the cassette onto the splines?


Anyway, use some lube on the splines, and you can install the wheel on the bike, rest the bike on the chain side (careful not to rest on the derailleur), and from between the spokes tap with a wooden piece into the rest of the cassette (cogs), you can install by hand the lockring so when it fall through it wont reach the frame. If tapping in several spots does not work than try taping at two opposed spots at a time (Two wooden dowels from the non-driveside) with a block of wood resting on both dowels and punch it with a hammer. It will come loose.
Or if you have use a 3jaw extractor, like a bearing extractor.

If the spline appear to have some grooves from torquing the cogs onto it, you can first put back a few cogs and the lockring (handtight) and with a chainwhip hold of an independent cog an twist a bit the block of cogs (with another chainwhip or taping with some wood tangent on one tooth) in trigonomoetryc direction - that should pull back the cogs from the grooves of the splines.

I can usually get any stuck cogs off using a cone wrench and giving it a wiggle. I get those indents on my freehubs, every month or so I remove the cassette and file the splines down to remove any burs that form, makes it easy to remove the cassette.

If you have a couple of chain whips you could put on the stuck portion of the cassette and the other on a loose cog to hold the freehub in place and use them to try and loosen the cassette.

As Asi's photo shows the sprockets tend to cut up into the cassette body and get trapped in slots of their own making.

The best way to free the cassette is one cog at a time, using 2 chain whips in opposition pulling the outermost one backward to free it from the slots it made, and sliding it off. Continue this way until you're down to the last sprocket, or assembly when you'll hold the cassette body in a pair of channelock pliers, protected by a thick rag or piece of leather (cut from a dead belt). If you don't have two chain whips, you can use one to hold the cassette and gently tap individual sprockets back, or without any chainwhips, lever 2 adjacent sprockets against each other with an old screwdriver.

There's nothing you can do about the slots, but they don't matter either way unless they go most of the way through the spline, but use a file to dress off the raised burrs so the new cassette slides on better. If you have an all loose cog, go to the auto store and buy medium grit lapping compound, and assemble the cassette with this between the sprockets, or at least the largest ones. When the lockring is tightened the grit will bind adjacent sprockets to each other helping to spread the load from individual sprockets to their neighbors, and reducing the local stress on the body.