A wheel followed me home yesterday. Plan was to save the rim, decent quality, no wear. But then I saw the FW is a Shimano Z012 with zero wear in a ratio I like. But of course It’s stuck to the hub. Hub is Malliard with a bent axle, so that can be sacrificed. Beyond the wrench longer than my arm, any tricks you’ve used to deal with this stuck FW situation ? Or do I just consider the rim a gift, and toss the rest?

Spray inside the FW with an upside down can of spray duster followed by a few drops of penetrating oil. A sturdy bench vise can help and an inflated tire will allow you to apply a little more leverage.

... also let the hub and freewheel soak in the penetrating oil overnight.

My other suggestion is to heat the hub with a torch and let it cool. Repeat several times and add more penetrating oil. This will help the oil do it's job and the expansion and contraction will help break the bond.

Put the freewheel tool on, put the QR skewer through so it holds the tool on. Put the tool in a vise, tighten it up, the use the wheel like a big steering wheel.

This video shows some methods of freewheel removal- but the vise trick is around 3:00.

That’s usually my method, but I learned a stubborn freewheel can bend a QR skewer, so I use one that’s not dear.

I use this one too. There has been a case recently of someone's freewheel tool breaking in the vise. On the really tight ones, it may be good to put the freewheel tool in a socket to help prevent the tool from breakage.

The vise method gives you maximum control and leverage. You still have to exercise common sense if you don't want to destroy something. Doing it correctly, you stand a much smaller chance of something slipping and damaging either the tool, freewheel, or wheel.

Yes, understood. My comment was simply about the stress being great on the tool being clamped directly in the vice versus the socket holding the tool being clamped into a vice. On a really tight one recently, I clamped a breaker bar into the vice with the socket mounted to the bar.
It seems to me that the stress on the tool is better spread to more surfaces.

After trying the vise trick and having it move my bench instead, I used a four-foot pipe slipped over the wrench with the wheel braced upright on the floor to get the last stubborn one off.

On the penetrating oil, looks like I’d need about a quart to be able to soak it. Don’t have that much on hand, but I do have a gallon of oxyalic acid sitting here leftover from a neighbor’s bike build. Any reason that I couldn’t do my soak in that?

I once watched a bike mechanic break two freewheel tools, one after the other, while he laughed, obviously not realizing that he was the problem, not the tools. I took over, grabbed our last remaining compatible freewheel tool from the display case out front, and tightened a quick-release skewer onto the tool -- with enough force that the other guy protested that there was no way the freewheel was going to budge.

Placed the tool and wheel onto the shop vise, turned the wheel just enough to break the freewheel free, loosened the QR skewer a bit, and turned the wheel a little farther. By that point, the freewheel was loose enough to back it all the way off by hand.

I've used an electric impact wrench with sucess. One "blip" and it was loose.

Thats what I was going to suggest. I learned from the legendary junkyard mechanic himself @Mad Honk.

I've wrapped aluminum foil around some items in order to reduce the volume that needs to be filled with oil or whatever fluid was being used.

Steve in Peoria
(most recently had to soak a SunTour front derailleur in penetrating oil to get a limit screw to budge. well... I also had to heat up the aluminum body until the oil began to smoke a bit)

My first thought when I saw this thread. And yes, remember to back off the QR nut as you unscrew the FW. Otherwise it is "let's see what fails first".

Especially if it's a Phil Wood hub. If you leave the skewer tight as you take the freewheel off, you also extract the axle/bearings subassembly from the hub shell. That's handy if removing the axle was your goal, but a bit upsetting if not. Also, if you shift a Phil axle over just a little, then the wheel is now out of dish and the derailer limit screws are both out of adjustment as well. So Phil made a tool that you are meant to slip over the left side of the hub before inserting the skewer, to prevent that.

That tool used to come with each hubset, but most mechanics didn't know what it was for, and many were thrown away. You don't need one necessarily, if you're careful, but it's safer if you use it.

I'd be surprised if the relevant tool would break in this case. Shimano freewheels have deep splines. Lots of contact area, unlike the old two-prong Regina and SunTour interfaces.

Some good advice here and I can add one more method that I had to go to years ago. I pulled the cogs and used a big pipe wrench on the freewheel hub. Got it off. That said...

Something to watch out for is breaking the freewheel tool. The two prong ones can slip or snap far more easier than any of the other styles. So be careful with the two pronger...

Not all old Shimano freewheels but yes most do (and I think the OP's freewheel is one with that interface) and it's a good system. I have a stuck Shimano freewheel that takes a different tool that was original equipment on a 1985 Cannondale. I have a 15 inch crescent that usually does the trick along with a tightened down freewheel remover but not this time. I may need to bring it to the collective to have access to a vice.

I guess I should have been more specific. I only meant that you should drip penetrating oil (WD40, Liquid Wrench, etc.) into the threaded area between the hub and inner body on the freewheel.

OA does not play well with the internals of the freewheel. It will ruin the bearings and the pawls.

And if you have an older Dura Ace freewheel with the two-notch remover style, be sure to use a real Shimano TL-FW10 remover, not a generic one.



What the TL-FW10 has that generics don't is that ring around the prongs. It strengthens them immensely.

There was another one with the ring that also works, I forget, by Bicycle Research maybe? But the TL-FW10 is a safe bet, never known one to fail.

The prong type (whether 2-, 3- or 4-prong) are the ones where it's most important to use the skewer. Splined removers are much safer to use without a skewer, but prong-type? Don't even think of it.

The TL-FW10 is also the best tool to use on old Regina FWs with the two-notch body. That Shimano tool fits a Regina better than a Regina tool does. So it's a super-valuable tool for a C&V kinda guy to own.

Thanks. If you didn’t run the freewheel spa, I would have assumed a good drip. But you made me think of a spa, so I was thinking of an immersive treatment.
I’ll keep the OA away from the FW. Maybe someday it will actually get used.
Meanwhile, I’m waiting for the neighbor to dig out the impact wrench that will be applied to the Park FW tool that fits this splined Shimano FW.

Ah.
If you have a vice on a rotating base (or on a corner or post) there is a trick.

You need a suitable bar, something about 3-4 feet long.
You slip it between the jaws, in the wider part below, after you have the freewheel tool in good and tight.
(After it's tight you do hold it on with a skewer/nut.)
The vice, if not on a corner or post, has to be turned anti-clockwise so that the bar is outboard of whatever the vice is mounted on.
Stand so the bar rests against your left ribcage, and so brace it as you turn.

I use one of these vices for many tasks, and the clamp-down bolts are usually loose enough that a good tug on the vice handle will move it to where I want it for holding whatever.
Unless a freewheel is extremely tight I don't bother tightening the clamp bolts, I just lean a bit on the bar.

Just a note hear on something I recently did. I put a French freewheel, (English thread) on an early phil wood freewheel hub. Once in place I realized the two smallest cogs were skipping and worn. Let me just say removal was exceedingly difficult. The removal tool would not fit over the phil wood axle. It required complete axle removal with my makeshift tools. Fortunately I seemed to not have ruined anything and it was cool to see how it all went back together but I will never put a French freewheel on it again.

For future reference, I believe Phil made thin wall tools for a couple freewheel types. I'm not sure which ones, but I have one for splined Shimano freewheels.​​​​​