Worn out freewheel

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battered

Guru
I'm running my MTB/commuter hack on second hand bits. The freewheel recently gave up. Hub is an XT Parallax from the mid 90s. I've replaced it with a spare wheel of similar vintage a mate gave me, all I had to do was rebuild the bearing. So far so good.:tongue:

I have a Chionese made nobrand hub that I recently wore out. The bearuings are pretty tired, the rim dead and the rest was floating about in teh Dead Kit Box awaiting inspiration.

I would like yto take the NoBrand freewheel mech and rebuild the Shimano hub. In the past ISTR using a 10mm allen key to remove a Shimano freewheel assy and replace it. The Chinese affair seems to have a slotted ring securing it.

Is this a straight swap or am I in for some pain? Any advice?
 

gbb

Legendary Member
Location
Peterborough
If i get this right, your freewheel needs a splined wrench to remove it from the wheel. Most (i assume) older wheels have a screw on freewheel and they're pretty universal. Should be a straight swap if you're lucky.

Mind, i was removing a freewheel a few weeks ago, got my shimano splined remover out...didnt fit. Had to go to the LBS and get a Maillard one ( i think it was a maillard)

The slotted ring you're seeing could be the lockring that holds the freewheel together, not for removing it from the wheel.

10mm allen key...was that to remove a freehub...not a freewheel ?

Can you post any pics ?
 
OP
OP
battered

battered

Guru
Ah sorry, terminology issue. I've said freewheel, I may well mean free *hub*. It's an 8 speed Shimano splined lockring cassette, NOT a freewheel type rear cluster. To dismantle you remove the skewer and use the shimano splined tool to remove the lockring which is stanped "tighten to 40kN". To do this you need a chainwhip or similar and a splined tool, and a bit of grunting. You can then remove the 8 gears and spacers from the splined hub. The freewheel *hub* in here is is the part that's faulty, it fails to freewheel when required and the chain starts looping up. Now in the past I remember removing this with a 10mm Allen key (iirc), it then comes off the rest of the hub/wheel.

Now the interesting bit here is the Chinese cheapy has no 10mm allen, it has a securing ring with a slot in it which would need a very broad slotted screwdriver to unscrew it. Anyone seen this before?
 
OP
OP
battered

battered

Guru
If I *had* an old Suntour tool, possibly!

TBH it's not really worthwhile, I have a spare wheel (now fitted), and the bearings and rims are likely to wear out before the freewheel does. I've got enough stuff to shuffle Shimano parts when that happens, and in any case you can set aside 2 years or so. I'll just drop the bits in the junk box and press on. By the time I've worn out another wheel or so I may have retired the thing.
 
OP
OP
battered

battered

Guru
Thanks for that, I'll prob end up junking the Chinese NoBrand job. Freehub bodies are pretty robust anyway,and all I need is one running rear wheel at a time.:biggrin: Thanks again to all who replied.
 
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