I'm almost a bit embarrassed to ask this one, being as I've owned old VW wabbits, worked on my own motorcycles, etc.

Been cleaning the Trek 420 here and there. No crank puller yet, but hey let's see if I can't get some of that gunk and oxidation off the freewheel. I removed the wheel, then the skewer, then unscrew the cones off the axle, and removed the ball bearings. The sprayed the freewheel (it's a 13-28 7sp Shimano btw) with WD-40, and brushed the gunk/rust off with a steel bristled brush. It cleaned up beautifully, and the teeth appear to be in good shape. Likewise I sprayed the bearing races and wiped everything out, and soaked the bearings in WD-40. Everything looks fine. There's only one little problem.

I don't have any grease.

APPARENTLY the only damn way to get the bearings to stick in the races long enough to put the axle through is to use grease!

Is that all there is to it or am I actually missing something here?

Guess it was a good thing I did't try to undo the crankset yet, eh?

And the silly part is that the freewheel and rear derailleur worked just fine (aside from being very dirty, as is the entire drivetrain - apparently the previous owner just kept adding more grease) - it's the FD and crankset that needs work.

Okay, you can cyberslap me now

Tom

Works OK in a pinch but when the bearings warm up the smell does make you a bit hungry.

I'll just ask a dumb question....why were you attempting to re-assemble a hub without grease? You'd just have to take it back apart and grease it once you rode the store and got some grease

+100 You were planning to assemble it without any grease? That will not last long.

Also, replace those old ball bearings while you are at it. Less than 50 cents worth of ball bearings there.

I have rebuilt lots of old bottom brackets. I also wrote a feature article on How to Rebuild the Bottom Bracket. You will see how the grease holds the loose bearings in place during assembly. And the grease is absolutely necessary, both for assembly and operation.



Hope this is a help.

Same here. Also, I would remove the freewheel before overhauling the hub.

Stimpy, you eediot!

Grease is not absolutely necessary to reassemble a bottom bracket. It is for long-lived operation but not for assembly.

Quit ducking, my arm is getting tired.

Grease is not needed for old style bottom brackets, that's an old wives' tale. Go ahead and put it together without grease, it'll be fine. Ignore any noises you hear, those are just the bearings 'settling in.'

-Fenley Q. Dropsnif
Sales Manager
Acme Bottom Bracket Co.

I really hope this isn't necessary as the above joke is about as subtle as a pie in the face, but just in case....

Once, before I had a solid understanding of lubricants and solvents, I spent a lot of time cleaning up the chain and freewheel and hub (...and chainring, etc.) with WD-40. Then, I rode my bike to the store. About halfway there, I thought ... wow, is it hard to pedal. I must really be coming down with something.

As I approached the store, the rear hub began to make a long wailing noise. Finally, I realized what I had done. Seeping WD-40 had melted away all the grease in the rear hub. Ease down, Ripley! You're just grinding metal!

The closest hardware or automotive store was a long ways off, and I was far from home. I did have ... somehow ... an adjustable wrench with me.

Also, I only had like $5 in cash and no credit cards or anything.

I went into the drugstore and searched around for what seemed like hours. I didn't know what I was looking for, but I knew that I'd know it when I saw it.

Finally, there it was: a trial size tin of noxema face cream. Just the right price. I opened it up. Just the right consistency.

I bought it. Went out to the sidewalk, disassembled the hub, packed it full of noxema, reassembled, and rode on my merry way, bearings gliding smoothly and silently in their races.

Perhaps one of my best MacGyver moments.

What? you guys never cleaned the grease out and switched to oil for that "big race" ?

Noxema heh? What's wrong with a small tub of Vaseline petroleum jelly?
Macgyver + 1.

what I want to know is 1 why didn't Tom take the FW off first ( and no one seems to have addressed this) and two how in the world is he getting the bearings back into the drive side race anyway?

I DID once manage to get the bearing back into the drive side without pulling the freewheel. I discovered too late that I did NOT have the appropriate freewheel tool and tried it anyhow. It was a major pain in the tuchus to get the in, but I did... can't really say I did a great job cleaning out the old grease though, and a week later when I'd tracked down and acquired the right tool, I ended up doing it again.

I now buy tools with the slightest provocation. I haven't regretted many of my purchases. I even own Park dropout straightening tools, one of my recent acquisitions. Soon I'll be buying a derailleur hanger straightener.

You definitely need cone wrenches, and I highly recommend a bench vise.

A sweaty guy with a wrench in his pocket buying a tub of Vaseline? Too embarrassing.

Wow. Until this very moment, I didn't think about how much more sense -- and how many fewer cents -- that would have made.

There's actually more to this story. That day I was dressed kind of strangely. I had longer hair, and was wearing a bandana around my forehead. Also, I was wearing my prescription sunglasses, and I hadn't brought my regular glasses. I had about a 10-day growth of beard. Must have been wearing all black. Still had my late-20s physique. Somehow, I guess I looked -- thuggish (which is strange since I'm an effete, intellectual left-winger who likes Italian truffles and hates violence). Also strange because black clothes did not look good with my blue three-speed. I don't know why I didn't change before I went out.

Anyway, I think I looked a little threatening. About one minute after I entered the drugstore, I heard something I'd never heard before: An announcement from that manager to store employees to "check the merchandise in their aisles." I definitely felt like I was being watched. I proceeded to walk through every aisle in the store looking for my bearing grease. When I finally bought the $2 sample tin of noxema, I got some very cold treatment from the person at the checkout.

Throughout the experience, I felt kind of amused. I'm the last person who would steal something from a drugstore.

Is this what's known as threadjacking?

Tell that to someone putting a loose-bearing BB back together.

-Kurt

I still can't figure out why in the world anyone would assemble a ball bearing anything without lubrication of some sort? Yes, the grease is required!

To get back to the point...
FZ1Tom: you need to get a freewheel removal tool that fits your particular freewheel. Grip the wheel rim firmly and unscrew the freewheel CCW. Then everything will make perfect sense.

I sleep for 5 hours and this is what I come back to.

I admit it - just wanted to get something done and it seemed like a good idea. No I didn't remove the freewheel from the hub. Just unscrewed the axle nut and pulled it out. 9 bearings to each side, of course. I trust that grease should be an easy/cheap find at WM though. Frankly the cob seems clean enough that I'll just get the bearings back in and reassemble the axle rather than tempt fate. I'll have to take the wheels to an LBS to get them tensioned/trued anyway.

Wasn't there a thread about grease preferences just a few days ago? I can't find it.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming now

Tom

Just think if you'd have come across K-Y first in that drugstore.

Bryl Cream would have worked, at least for t0 minutes or so..