Rear Derailleur rebuild questions (and some rim questions too)
 

I was working on my Nishiki last night and ran into some rd problems, the suntour AR derailleur was all gummed up and letting the chain go slack. I attempted to loosen the cover over the spring and promptly stripped the screw :notamused:

So, on to plan b, I pulled my cyclone that I'd been saving for a special build off the shelf and tried to slap it on there. Of course the claw wouldn't come off the AR, so I stole the one of my Special Road Racer and that seems to work. To thread it up I had to either break the chain or pull one of the jockey wheels. Since I was already messing with the rd, I chose just to pull the jockey wheel. Once removed and wiped down the metal sides came off the wheel to reveal some gritty gunk. My question, is what do I do at this point? Clean it out & put some grease in there, or is it supposed to be a dry lubricant like graphite?

Also, I bent the front rim on my Fuji and it's time to invest in a decent wheelset. Stock wheels just can't hold up to my weight. Should I go with a Sun CR-18 built up with swiss dt spokes on my current hub, or go for Deep-V's I don't care much about looks, the bike needs to be able to handle my weight, and hopefully help me remove some of that weight. I'm down 30-lbs since the first of the year, and my goal is another 20 so that I can be just 'overweight' instead of 'obese'.

I don't care about upgrading to a more modern drive train, not against it, but I want to keep it simple. So either I can go 700c or just stay with 27" continentals, which is fine with me. The most likely route is the lowest cost build that can handle my weight. Obviously just buying a new 27" machine built wheel would be the easiest thing to do, but it'd also be a waste of money as I'll just trash those rims in short order. My bike might be ok with spreading the forks and drops, but it will for sure be ok if I don't. My current double in the front and 5-speeds in the rear are just fine for my riding style. I will plan on building the wheels over the winter and having my lbs check the tension with the gauge when I'm done.

The bikes I plan to use this wheelset on would either be my early 80's Nishiki or early 80's Fuji.

Any advice is appreciated.

Nevermind, found what I wanted to know about derailleurs here: http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=76

Still not sure what to do about wheelset. CR-18 looks good, but Deep-V's look stronger.

FWIW I weigh around 200# and have had no trouble with my Sun CR-18's. I recently built a set of Mavic Rims with DT Swiss Competition spokes and to be honest preferred working with the Wheelsmith Double Butted spokes I used on my CR-18's. I've had to adjust the wheels built with the DT spokes more than I did the Wheelsmith spoke'd ones. Its possible I just did a better job on the Wheelset with the Wheelsmith Spokes, but I doubt it. Of course your mileage may vary.

I've got no experience with Deep Vee's.

All you need to do is soak down the derailleur(s) in some WD40 to melt off all the old grease. Better if you can disassemble the derailleurs as far as you can go to really clean it up. Use an old toothbrush to break up the grit and old grease, reassemble and lubricate and you should be set to go. Like all other parts on the bike, derailleurs do get dirty after some use and will require cleaning and servicing/lubricating, at least every season, if you ride lots of miles.

Chombi.