My eldest lad has been riding his Ridgeback MX14 through lots of puddles and the freewheel started to sound dry / noisy. Put some penetrating fluid into the gap but its now making a nasty clicking sound, presumably I freed up a square ball bearing. Any way to service them & how do you get the things off?

Looks like this with just 2 mini dimples on the outerface, no big lugs like my old BMX one.

no dimples then the solution is to clamp in the vice very tight till it locks up and unscrew – then fit a new one.

Ive seen them fitted backwards on kids bikes from factory to resolve chainline issues.

I had the same problem – can’t find the link but I think it was on Park Tools or somewhere equally reputable.

They suggest chisel and hammer! As far as I could discover there is no non-destructive way to remove a Dicta freewheel 🙁

I drifted the plate (where it says Dicta) off with a chisel which allowed me to disassemble it. Hammer & chisel didn’t shift it so I locked it in a vice and turned the wheel

Put some penetrating fluid

you’ve taken the grease out. dribble some chainlube in there.

Probably easiest to service it still fitted. Use a pin punch in ones of the dimples and a hammer to unscrew the cover plate. I think it is likely to be a RH thread but try the other way if doesn’t move. Then you can inject some grease and re-fit. TBH I’d try and get it off (which probably involves removing the cover plate as above then using stilsons on what is left) and replacing it with a better quality model.

If you actually want to strip and service it, then is easiest done still attached to the hub.

Hammer and punch in one of the dimples. Hit in a clockwise direction as you look at it (left hand thread). Unscrew the front race and catch all the balls, shim washers and springs etc as they fall out.

Clean it up – if not too badly pitted then can just be rebuilt (bearing surfaces do not need to be perfect – but any chipped teeth or pawls then bin it). If you are scrapping it at this stage, then grip the remaining centre bit in a vice and unscrew like you would a normal BMX freewheel (right hand thread).

Quite fiddly but not impossible to rebuild. Minimum amount of grease to hold balls in place. Only oil NOT grease on the pawls (or they will stick).

Edit – nickjb beat me to it! Except he got the thread-hand wrong 🙂

Thanks All.

If you do service it, beware it is likely half a million tiny ball bearings will fall out and roll under the nearest fridge never to be seen again