Raleigh71

I thought I had every freewheel remover known to man.

I'm fixing up a c. 1970 Schwinn which has a no-name freewheel. After removing the ball bearings I was faced with (see photo).

Those notches are 4 mm long and about 2 mm deep.

None of my freewheel removers fit this.

Any ideas??

Click on the thumbnailsfor a hi-res image.

Jeff Wills

I suspect that that is not the original wheel if you have a "1970 Schwinn". Can you post a picture of the whole bike? It's easier to verify the year by seeing the whole enchilada.

What is in your picture is a Shimano Uniglide cassette hub. The cassette mechanism is attached to the hub and the cogs are removed with 2 chain whips: one to hold the cassette stationary, one to loosen the smallest cog. Google "removing shimano uniglide cassette" to find more instructions on this.

ultraman6970

+1 uniglide....

https://sheldonbrown.com/k7.html#uniglide-old

Raleigh71

Jeff:

Hey thanks! It's removed already.

See photo.

The bike is up in Northern Michigan. You'd have to ski in to get it now. I took the wheels off and brought them down South to work on over the winter.

I'm pretty sure everything is original on it. The hub says "Shimano via DL" The rim says "Weinmann 16-630" 27" x 1-1/4" and "Made in Belgium"

It's possible it's late 70's rather than early '70's?

Now the next question: The freehub isn't removable with a 10 mm hex wrench like every one I've ever seen. If I want to service that how do I get it off?

Kimmo

It'd have to be late 70s if it's definitely the original wheel.

Early cassette bodies weren't removable, but you can still service the freewheel mechanism.

Find or make something to engage those notches and it's a left-hand thread. The part is a cup on both sides; underneath is 25 balls and some shims for preload. Then the cassette body shell lifts off over the pawls, revealing the inner/lower race of another 25 balls.

When reassembling, stick the lower race of balls into the cone with a fillet of grease before adding the shell. Then put the shims on (you can often eliminate play by leaving the thinnest one out) before you insert the other balls. Do up the double cup pretty tight, but I think precession tightens it anyway.

Raleigh71

Thanks for the great info!

Raleigh71

Kimmo

Enjoy your cassette body overhaul. They're kinda fun

I recommend doing it above a rag, particularly since you're dealing with the whole wheel rather than just a hub or cassette body.

Even better, a rag on the floor. Those tiny balls are hard to find if they bounce away...

For bonus points, you could try replacing the shell with a Hyperglide one (might require some modification), or file some HG cog splines to fit and use your old UG small cog or a BB lockring to secure them.

pierce

if thats the early style UG thats talked about on that sheldon link above, it doesn't look like that freehub is rebuildable, and you can't swap it for a HG freehub like you could the later UG.

a new hub, or new wheel would be what *I* would do. but only if this schwinn is a good quality bike, if its a low end frame, its scrap metal, unless you can scrounge an used HG wheel for it.

Kimmo

Actually, AFAIK all Shimano cassette bodies are rebuildable via the two slots and my instructions.

It's just the early ones aren't removable.

Colouring outside the lines, you can do this:



That's an old style (non-removable) Dura-Ace AX hub from the early 80s with a 7s UG/HG shell on it.

Unfortunately there isn't clearance for the spokes to run all seven cogs (the shell had to be ground down to fit in a recess), but at least it takes unmodded HG cogs including the smallest one. Could fit 7/9 no problem, I bet.

HillRider

Do you have to remove it? Could you just clean up the outside and drip a lot of light oil (Tri-Flow or similar) into the gap between the rotating outer shell and the inner core? Unless the bearings are completely shot or there is a lot of play in the body, that should be good enough.

Kimmo

Sometimes the cup is too tight for whatever improvised tool you might have cobbled together, in which case I'd just oil it...

But a proper overhaul (grease > oil) is a satisfying experience, and if there's enough play to remove a shim, can result in a slight shifting improvement.

FastJake

I'm still curious what bike this came on. It's obviously not the original wheel if the bike is from 1970. Can you post a picture of the whole bike?

Jeff Wills

The freehub body is pressed on the hub body. The naked hub body looks like this:


It requires a special tool that threads on the body and presses it off. I haven't been able to find one after searching for a few minutes- maybe someone else can.

In any case, removal isn't really necessary. Since you have the axle off, just squirt some light oil at the junction between the inner and outer body. Spin the body a few times so the oil flows in the crack. Keep squirting it in until it starts coming out the other (hub) side. You may start to see dirt and goop come out. Keep spinning to flush the rest of the dirt out. Repeat this with a heavier oil- my preference is Phil Tenacious. You want to get enough in there to lube the bearings, but not fill it completely. It's right when spinning the freehub body is smooth and pretty quiet but no oil is flowing out. Clean off any extraneous oil, pack the bearings back in with grease, and put it all back together.

There may be some oil that migrates outward as you use the wheel. It'll move down the spokes- clean it off before it gets to the rim.

If you really want to take the ball cup out and get at all those tiny bearings (like Kimmo says), a friend makes a tool that engages the notches: https://efficientvelo.com/tools/wheel-hub.html#cass . I wouldn't recommend this unless you really feel the need to chase zillions of 1/8" ball bearings around your house.