Freewheel. How Do I Make The New One Easier To Get Off?

[Lovacott]

I've just spent a good half an hour wrestling with my old freewheel trying to get it off the bike.

It's only been on there since June and I used a liberal covering of lithium grease when I fitted it. However, even with the correct tool and an 18 inch pipe wrench, it was as tight as Excalibur. After much huffing and puffing, it finally started to budge and eventually came free.

Before I fit the new freewheel this morning, does anyone have any tips on how to make it easier to get off next time around?

BTW, the old one is probably fine but I'm changing it because I let my previous chain go on for a bit too long so I'm popping on a new freewheel as a precaution.

 

[T4tomo]

Best way to remove a freewheel is attach the tool and put the tool in a vice and then turn your wheel like a steering wheel.

Obvs not everyone has a vice...

Lithium grease as you've done is sensible.

 

[Lovacott]

Best way to remove a freewheel is attach the tool and put the tool in a vice and then turn your wheel like a steering wheel.

Obvs not everyone has a vice...

Lithium grease as you've done is sensible.

A vice would be perfect but I have no workbench to secure it to.

Using a wrench and bouncing up and down, I can't help but feel that I am stressing the hub?

However, you have given me an idea.

If I fix a spanner against a decent lump of wood (a 4 x 4 fence post), I could use the wheel rim as leverage exactly as in a vice.

I'll report back.

 

[midlife]

Don't pedal so hard .

 

[Lovacott]

Don't pedal so hard .

With a lack of a vice and bit of advice from here, I think I've got it sussed. Because I've only just changed my own freewheel about two hours ago, I tried it out on my sons five year old bike which has been sat in the shed gathering dust.

Here's what I did.

About halfway up a six foot 4"x 4" fence post, I screwed on a ring spanner and placed the freewheel tool in one end. I then offered up the wheel and with one decent twist of the wheel rim, off came the freewheel.

Applying an even force to the wheel rim with two hands must be a lot kinder to the hub than bashing away at the centre with a spanner?

Whatever, it was so much easier.

 

[Lovacott]

Don't pedal so hard .

I can't help it..

 

[cheys03]

If I fix a spanner against a decent lump of wood (a 4 x 4 fence post), I could use the wheel rim as leverage exactly as in a vice.

Brilliant idea!!

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

The difference is if you grip the wheel two-handed, especially if still fitted with a tyre, and hold the tool still you can operate from a more suitable position and make maximum use of your body strength.
Contrast that with the usual alternative of jamming the wheel up against a wall whilst trying to hold it still with your bodyweight so it can't slip and just using one hand to apply the leverage to the tool. That's not at all ergonomic.

 

[Gunk]

Obvs not everyone has a vice...

Probably one of the best bits of kit you can buy if you do your own maintenance, I use mine all the time.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Probably one of the best bits of kit you can buy if you do your own maintenance, I use mine all the time.

I agree but to make maximum use of a good vice you also need a decent workbench to mount it on, so you can apply real force to things. Both are equally important and neither is that much use without the other.

 

[Lovacott]

The difference is if you grip the wheel two-handed, especially if still fitted with a tyre, and hold the tool still you can operate from a more suitable position and make maximum use of your body strength.
Contrast that with the usual alternative of jamming the wheel up against a wall whilst trying to hold it still with your bodyweight so it can't slip and just using one hand to apply the leverage to the tool. That's not at all ergonomic.

When I took off the old freewheel at 5.30am this morning, I basically put the wheel between my legs and bounced my body weight onto the far end of an 18" pipe wrench. I got it off OK (in the end) but it made me wonder how much (if any) damage I might have caused to the wheel after half an hour of wrestling with it?

The vice method of freewheel removal works 10 times better because there is no need to apply a sudden shock force to the wheel and hub.

But a vice doesn't have to be a bench vice. It can be anything solid which can grip and hold a component while you work on it.

The fence post with a spanner screwed to it worked a treat.

 

[Gunk]

I also use the vice method to remove stubborn bottom brackets, I use the frame as leverage.

 

[weareHKR]

The fence post with a spanner screwed to it worked a treat.

Thinking outside the box... love it...

 

[ColinJ]

The fence post with a spanner screwed to it worked a treat.

Thinking outside the box... love it...

I broke my chainwhip when trying to loosen a stupidly tight lockring on my singlespeed bike. This was my improvised solution, which soon sorted the problem out...

It was such a stable setup that all I had to do was stand on the 12 inch spanner!

 

[TheDoctor]

This is one of the reasons that freehubs were invented...