The silence of the freewheels...
 

I recently picked up a Sachs LY96 7 speed freewheel in very nice condition but it doesn't make any noise. It spins freely and seems to work okay but there is only the faintest click if you really listen for it.

Any idea if this is normal for this freewheel or if it is something I should be concerned about?

I'd like for it to make a little noise so I may break it open to see what's going on. Won't mess with it though if this is normal operation.

Thanks!

the silent ones, like my three ird freewheels, are a bit of a catch-22. on the one hand, quiet is almost always preferred for mechanical things (especially bicycles). but, on the other, a freewheel click is a good way to warn pedestrians on the trail that you're approaching.

I can barely hear any of my FWs. When I was a young teen it was cool listening to them. Now that I'm 58, only the freehub/cassettes are noisey.

For warning slower bikes and bipeds, I like to nervously click my brake levers. :)

ha. i do that too.

or sing a little song. i have a lot of mid '70s bowie running through my head these days.

"I shot the sheriff" would get some movement.

I only sing to scare dogs away. I actually prefer noisier freewheels... SunTours are great.

Maybe pawls stuck? Tagging [MENTION=398641]PastorB[/MENTION]obnh

I like to have the least amount of noise possible in my drivetrains. That way, I can hear if there is an actual problem. Once, there was a deer standing in the middle of the MUP, looking at the couple who had just passed, and I had to yell to get it to move because my freewheel wasn't making any noise.

Heavier weight oil will dampen the sound, but the freewheel may not work as well in cold weather. I just use my garage oil can, which is filled with the remnants of whatever is in the cars, like 10w-30.

The Sachs 7 speed freewheels that I bought came lightly greased. Very nice freewheels.. good seals, a small port for lubrication, etc. A quick check of a couple that are sitting nearby confirms that they are extremely quiet. Definitely not the same sort of click that I get from my SunTours.

Steve from Peoria

I have several freewheels and a UG freehub that are quiet to silent. All of them work perfectly, except the Sachs 6spd, which has a trick "false neutral" that's nearly taken out the family jewels on several occasions :eek:. Needless to say, that one is now enjoying a prolonged rest in my parts bin. Maybe one day I'll tear it down again and see if I can find out what's up, on a second attempt. First teardown was NTF (no trouble found). Perhaps I'll tweak the springs next time, to give them a little extra "oomph".

Two little freewheels sitting on a wheel, one named Peter one named Pawl

I have one of the Shimano silent coasting freehubs sold for police bikes. It uses a more complicated cam system instead of pawls. Quiet as a cemetary at midnight.

After repacking the bearings in my freewheels with a synthetic, waterproof grease like Phil's or Marine grade trailer bearing grease, the freewheels are always significantly quieter than when those lubricated with the factory installed lubricant. Shimano freewheels always seemed louder than others, from my experience.

Sounds like a good comparison, thanks.

Just to add further, I have the freewheel off the bike and basically can hear no clicking whatsoever. I really can't feel a ratchet of any type either. It does seem to lock up okay in the drive direction.

Guessing it's probably a quiet freewheel to start with that's probably had some heavier lube put on it. Just hoping to avoid @old's'cool 's near miss.

have a maillard course ( from memory) that makes an unbelievably loud "CLACK CLACK CLACK" at least twice as loud as any others I have .
Always have been a bit suspicious about the "quiet ones " Have a bunch in the parts bin but am not willing to risk my health on them .

[MENTION=403744]plonz[/MENTION] 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. :innocent:

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. :D

I prefer them to be quiet. We used the Phil injector tool to put grease into freewheels without a hassle and that would shut them up nicely, and I still have my Phil tool.

To alert riders and pedestrians being overtaken, don't rely on freewheel noise; use a bell.

There's our answer man. Only a bit disappointed you didn't clarify which type of peanut butter. I'm assuming creamy over crunchy but what I really need to know is Skippy or Jif?

Imagine if you applied this kind of thinking to all aspects of your life.

It works, which should be the best reason to leave well enough alone.

:innocent: ...that is--- until it doesn't work. :twitchy:

I could do the same with my Honda van--- and eventually the motor oil would be shot and the engine could blow. Or the transmission belts could continue to loosen until the putting it in Drive is pointless. Or the tires go bald but I drive them until they explode on a hot day at 65mph. :eek: This is why we do preventive maintenance.

I'm surprised that the guy who sells what I think is the greatest chain-lube on the market says, "...leave well enough alone." My chains still function at the end of the riding season, but they all come off the bikes over the winter for a cleaning and lubing. This way I don't worry about them for most of the riding season. The same is true for my winter bikes. Sometime in April they will receive the same treatment--- so I don't find them rusted together come this time next November or December.

Give [MENTION=403744]plonz[/MENTION] a break FBinNY! He asked a good question and he deserves honest and polite responses.

So with this turn in communication, the question is, how do you know if a freewheel is quieter than it should be? I like mine quiet too. The IRD is new so I don't have any concerns about its sound. The Dura Ace 8 speed is equally quiet, now I am concerned!

I recently worked on a NOS 7 speed Regina CX for a customer that was preparing for CA L'Erioca. He had purchased a restored early '80s Grandis from a place in Germany. The bike included the NOS Regina.

After he received the bike and went for several rides he heard a "thump" with each revolution of the freewheel when coasting. This is why he sent the Regina to me. Turns out it was defective probably from manufacturing. Something was up with the alignment between the inner and outer body, i.e. they were not "square" to each other and on one side they hit.

The seller however tried to cover up this defectiveness by pumping the freewheel full of grease with one of those rear thread on injectors. Sometimes just adding a whole lot of grease doesn't really solve an issue.

I don't recommend using the grease injectors on freewheels. Along with flooding the rear race with too much grease you keep filling the pawl and ratchet area with grease and really don't want it there, but if you want to put grease in the front race, you have no choice.

do i need to actually install the bell on my road bike, or can i just say, "ding ding"?

I might have been nicer, but I'm from NY and shoot from the hip. However, I honestly cannot see how taking something apart to find out why it's working well makes any sense. The old rule that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies here.

Freewheels are very simple mechanisms, that operate under optimum conditions. When under load, they are locked up with no moving parts. When they are moving (freewheeling) there's near zero load (the weight of the freewheel and chain). As such there's not much that can go wrong except for rust. The symptom of a problem is slippage or delayed engagement which indicate that the pawls are not engaging quickly and/or fully. That's when you fix it (usually by a simple flush and oil process)

Quiet operation is a positive in freewheels the same as it is in watches. As long as you hear the ticking of the pawls when freewheeling, it doesn't matter how faintly.


BTW- No offense to anybody is intended but folks here on this forum tend to be overly obsessive about their bikes. Bikes need reasonable maintenance, but more isn't better, it's just more time spent tinkering and less time riding.

Both my original answer and this one are consistent with my product which is intended for folks who want good maintenance with minimal effort.