Servicing Sturmey-Archer freewheel

[zigzag]

after the recent audax ride where flood levels were above hubs, next day the freewheel sounded like there was gravel instead of ball bearings and brown emulsion dripping out of it. these freewheels are can be taken apart fairly easily and serviced in less than an hour. the main thing to bear in mind that the front cover plate has a reverse thread and unscrews clockwise - i've done this by punching philips head screw driver with a hammer, alternating two opposite holes. loosen the plate first with the freewheel still on the hub, then unscrew the whole freewheel, put it flat on a smooth well lit surface and undo the front plate. you'll see gazillion (ok, i've found 95 of them) of 1/8" ball bearings inside - try not to lose any. take the freewheel apart, clean every surface, re-grease bearing races, put a drop of lube on each pawl and reassemble - job done! see the pics below for details (these instructions are valid for more popular shimano mx-30 freewheels as well).
hope this helps!

 

[tyred]

Excellent. Those instructions will work for virtually all freewheels including the multi-speed variety. I know it's a fiddle but I always overhaul rather than replace. Seems wasteful to do otherwise.

 

[Pennine-Paul]

This is why I changed to riding fixed rather than freewheel,

Go out on a wet day and they start grinding and you get that brown rusty gunk coming out,

Maintenance now is a quick wipe with an oily rag

 

[Smurfy]

This is why I changed to riding fixed rather than freewheel,

Go out on a wet day and they start grinding and you get that brown rusty gunk coming out,

Maintenance now is a quick wipe with an oily rag

For the ultimate in low maintenance you need to add Gates Belt Drive.

 

[zigzag]

i've ridden it in rain quite a few times and it's been smooth (as well as shimano freewheel on my other ss bike), but riding submerged seemed a bit too much to it.