I just installed an ACS Claws freewheel, and the freewheel appears to wobble as the wheel turns. The axle is new and doesn't appear to be bent, and the freewheel goes on and off OK, so the threads aren't deformed. It really looks as if the freewheel wasn't bored and threaded concentrically through the body. Is that ever known to happen???

Is this the typical "chain goes tight, then slack, then tight, etc?" That's pretty common with all freewheels, but my experience has been that ACS are the worst about it. If it's anything like mine, it'll start slipping on hard take offs, before you have 50 miles on it. If you can get a little light oil into it, it should last until you can get a White Industries freewheel.

Might be the same thing. The whole freewheel assembly appears to be rocking in a circle relative to the drop-out, moving a couple of mm. It looks like a badly bent axle, but the axle isn't bent.

How thick is a White? I have less than 1 mm between the freewheel dogs and the dropout now, so anything thicker and I have to either re-dish the wheel, which I'd rather not do 'cause I don't trust a really flat wheel (or my skills to build one) or just re-space both ends of the axle and spread the frame.

It's typical...but a few mm seems pretty drastic. Can you move it back and forth with your hand or does it only happen when the wheel is turning?

The overall thickness is the same, as far as I can tell. The body on the white is about a millimeter thicker than the ACS, but the center part (the dogs?) only sticks out about a millimeter, maybe less.

happen to have both makes in house here. just put a caliper to 'em (as best i could...they're both mounted). greyryder is dead on.

ACS - body is ~16.5mm. the tool interface adds another ~2.5mm, for a ~19mm total width overall.

White - 18 + 1 = 19.

my ACS wobbles too. doesn't have many miles on it, but gets banged around a lot (it's on a trials bike). so far so good. that's what $25 buys, instead of the $80 white.

No, whole assembly is moving together. There's little play between the body and the cog.

Closer inspection (or not posting from memory after midnight) shows the wobble to be only a mm, if that. It looked so obvious and surprising, I exaggerated unintentionally.

Here's a video:

https://img85.imageshack.us/img85/2497/wobble.mp4

Note that the inner freewheel (a Dicta) is steady, so it's the ACS freewheel, not the axle.

I've seen a lot of freewheels do that exact same thing. ACS freewheels are known to be pretty janky.

there goes my idea of putting a cheap acs on the other side just in case. fifteen bucks saved.

No idea how it's going to hold up (my setup has all of 3 miles on the road), but the Dicta looks like neater workmanship, and is equally ridiculously cheap. Not a big range of sizes that I could find, though.

Dicta are known to be the most disposable of freewheel brands. That said, I've had better luck with them, than I have with ACS. Sometimes, you can even find Dictas on sale for around six bucks, or so.