bark_eater 

Progress, of sorts..



Of course I've got the gut piles of 6 more bikes to sort and clean in the garage....


Skipped ahead with this one. WD40 and 5 minutes with a brush, this was what was under 50 years of grime. Its a little gritty feeling but there's potential.

merziac

I fill ones like these with Marvel Mystery oil, drain and flush after a soak then fill em up with 50wt. oil, never fails and lots of miles on lots of these.

Would also encourage no WD inside it, it can strip the bearings ability to properly absorb lube, oil, etc. at the micro level.

Every one of these that can be saved and should be.

SurferRosa

Got a hammer amd punch? (A big nail might work, too.) They're the easiest component to fully overhaul.

bulgie 

Hmm, lots of people would disagree. I've done it a half-dozen times but I don't relish it. Keeping the myriad tiny balls in their tracks, while simultaneously keeping the pawls compressed against their springs, is like keeping a lot of balls in the air — metaphorically. If you literally have a lot of balls in the air while reassembling a freewheel, you did something wrong.

Yes I know some tricks, and I can get them back together on the first try, but I wouldn't call it easy.
Maybe that's just me. pastorbobnlnh, what do you think, easy for most home mechanics?

Mark B

SurferRosa

The balls are no more difficult to keep in place than headset balls on a crown race. I don't worry about the pawls at all, except keeping them free of grease. Loading the lower bearings on the body (not the back of the cluster) makes assembly of the two pieces much easier.

It's the only component that does not require a fine, manual adjustment, thus making it the easiest to overhaul.

Mad Honk 

I spent an hour this evening at my co-op looking for a Huffy frame to cut up. Dismayed at not finding one, but was slightly entertained at a loud and pushy woman who thought she could just come in and take any bike for free. I'm not really sure she was raised to be that way, but tonight she was a a "Karren" on steroids. The shop foreman asked her to leave and not return, and she began arguing with him asking for his name (like she had any clout with the 501 that hosts the shop?). So I'm back home working on the design for the Campification of a Huffy. Smiles, MH

AdventureManCO 

The Borg has assimilated another.

SurferRosa

Karren sounds like a Scandinavian Karen, so a really big one.

bulgie 

Huh, the difficulty of adjusting them is one of my main complaints!

Suntours almost always tighten up too much when I hammer the ring back on. And I'm not going to leave it less than "rammed home", because of all the Suntours I've seen that performed an unplanned disassembly in the field. Have you ever tried to find enough balls to reassemble a freewheel after they fell out, over maybe 100 yards of road, and bounced off into the gravel? I have, twice. (Not my bike either time). We found that you can pack other things besides balls in there; one time it was a shoelace, another time a flexible green twig, anything to hold the inner and outer body somewhat concentric. Then a rock and a screwdriver to pound the ring back on. Works surprisingly well! One guy remembered a few months later that this "temporary" fix was still in his freewheel. He forgot because it worked near perfect.

So anyway, when working on one, I hammer it on REAL good, then usually find the bearings now bind up. Take the ring back off and scrounge around for an adjusting shim. I don't have a bag of NOS shims, though one shop I worked at (R+E) did; they managed to buy them from Suntour or whoever was distributing them, in about '82. We'd had a rash of self-disassembling Suntours, so we pre-emptively tightened every single one that went through our shop, and most of those had to have a shim added to keep from binding. But me without a bag o' shims, I have to cannibalize another grimy old dead Suntour to get some.

I may be overly paranoid, but it's like the old saying, "13 times bitten, really really shy".

Mark B

SurferRosa

Never had to "adjust" one.

For me, the most difficult step is removing the lock ring on those that have never been properly serviced.

merziac

Yes, many would disagree, I have never found the need to take one apart or ever had one come apart.

Also never needed to do more than flush and fill likely due to the fact that I don't ride hard, much.

bark_eater 

Todays candidate.
This was a "saved from the dump" bike, rattle canned with some functional bits of Suntour XCE.

I was a bit disappointed to find the rear axle busted and the cones trashed. I'm hoping the cups are OK. I figure a 7 speed Freewheel Hybrid wheel set like this would make for a nice 120mm 5 speed "Touring" wheelset.

I tried a little more acetone on the spray paint, and it looks like all the original decals are still there under 2 more layers of paint. the acetone ate the gloves off my hands, so I'll give another try with lacquer thinner later on.

The frame feels pretty light, is lugged has an ovalized down tube, and its pink. I'll put this in the someday pile for now.

alexihnen 

Well, I had a bike arrive. And saw something you don't really want to see. I usually vet the seller a little better, but he assured me he had the pipe insulation and had packed bikes before.

SurferRosa

Sold another bike today ... to a guy close to my hood I had never met, a c&v snob (like me).



This is the second time Bob Freeman served as my wingman. He saw the ad and contacted the new owner, Gene, with "you should buy this." Thanks Bob! And Stuart! And Gene!

This is the second recent c&v sale that went pretty quickly. It gives me a little hope for the vintage bike market and our community. Of course, the prices aren't nearly as high as they were 5-10 years ago. But folks are still diggin' the old school steel.

SurferRosa

How did it turn out?

bark_eater 

Kind of sad about this one, but it was a wee bit of a wreck.

merziac

Well I know like many of us, you have plenty of experience.

That being said and the level of ecosuppresion I would encourage you to consider Rustoleum aircraft stripper, while not as effective as it used to be, it will do the job if you combine it with heat, sunlight, good wire brushes including a welding one and the round tubing assortment from Harbor Freight so you can get into all the nooks and crannies.

Last one I did, the paint melted off once I got it softened and started by scuffing it with 100 grit.

Also used a heat gun to speed up the process a couple of times when the sun went down or wasn't keeping it warm.

Robvolz 

Bulgur said: Hmm, lots of people would disagree. I've done it a half-dozen times but I don't relish it. Keeping the myriad tiny balls in their tracks, while simultaneously keeping the pawls compressed against their springs, is like keeping a lot of balls in the air — metaphorically. If you literally have a lot of balls in the air while reassembling a freewheel, you did something wrong.



I have an old metal dental tray I stuck 3 speaker magnets to the bottom. It helps keep things in place until you want them. Easy to wipe clean when done

merziac

Nothing, again.

alexihnen 

It was OK. Seatpost and saddle was loose in the box. Stem was unwrapped and tapping the head tube. But, the wheels were zip tied to the frame and it appears nothing was damaged in shipping. It was a project bike to begin with, I guess.

SurferRosa

Total cluster job, but you got lucky.

bark_eater 

I am kind of interested to see what condition to original paint and decals are.

It looks like someone who didn't appreciate the original pink main triangle, did a nice job matching the stays and fork with a gray. Later on some one else rattle canned black gloss over the assembled bike.

I put a lot of miles on a low end Bianchi Avenue hybrid, so I'm inclined to hold on to this one incase I "need" a hybrid....

merziac

You do not want to magnetize the bearings, it can restrict the natural rotation of them even under load and cause abnormal wear and problems.

bulgie 

Plus it makes metal filings stick to the balls, and they're next to impossible to wipe off unless you demagnetize them.

I have several magnetic parts trays, but I would never use them for bearings. I hate metal slivers in my balls!!

Who's this Bulgur guy?

rjhammett

Gave the bike owned by neighbor kid a tune up and changed tires/tubes for him. It was a bike that I sold to him a few years ago for $25 which is what I had invested in it. He picked up the tires and tubes and I did the free tune up.