Rear cassette / freewheel not taking up chain slack.

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arallsopp

Post of The Year 2009 winner
Location
Bromley, Kent
Howdo.

Been off the bike for a while, which has given me a chance to investigate some of the drive train issues I've been having.

When backpedalling on the smaller sprockets, the chain has been going slack, and pulling taught only after the tension maxes out the rear derailleur arm.

Its been getting worse recently, and now the chain bounces around all over the place whenever I take pressure off the pedals.

Kudos to BentMikey, who suggested it was the freewheel and not the idlers (which I'd previously been blaming).

Next part is, does anyone know how I might go about fixing things? Do I need a new freewheel? To be honest, the rear axle has developed a bit of play in the last 5 thousand miles, and I'm probably due a new cassette, chain and rings as I've been running these since new.

Any thoughts? Is this a replace the set type thing, or can I clean something inside the rear end that might free things? I think the cassette is threadlocked on now, as it developed a rattle some 7k miles back. :ohmy:
 

gbb

Legendary Member
Location
Peterborough
Freewheel ? i assume then its a cup and cone axle. Easy enough to adjust the play in the wheel(if you know how), assuming the play has'nt damaged the cup/cones.
If there's that much play, is the freewheel moving about enough to cause your chain problems, everything being out of true if you know what i mean.
Replace a freewheel ? again, easy enough with the right tools, but if you've threadlocked it on, that will now work against you.
I was trying to remove one a few weeks ago, proper Shimano tool, it snapped instantly because of the tightness of the freewheel...without threadlock :smile:


All in all, with the mileage its all done....its probably not surprising.

If it were mine, before spending any money i'd try to get the freewheel off first, then see if the hubs can be adjusted successfully....before buying a new freewheel.
One step at a time, or you could be buying bits before you know whether you can use them.
 
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arallsopp

arallsopp

Post of The Year 2009 winner
Location
Bromley, Kent
Thanks for this. I loosened off the QR skewer one half turn and that seems to have freed the cassette enough to pull the chain taught.

Of course, now the wheel has about 4mm of play at the tyre, so I'm now searching for the cone wrenches (darn, I know where they *were*) and whatever google turns up.

Why don't they make 'googlehome' for these jobs? Or bike tools that can't be pressed into service as a spanner / crowbar / hammer by the other half? :blush:
 
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