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So, both the 20t ACS that was ridden at HTN on Sat and the 18t Shimano on the other side of the hub are, as a result of those glorious 2 hours in north Manchester's finest, more than a little gritty.
In fact, the ACS is pretty much seized solid. It's two rides old.
Do I assume that both freewheels have had it, or is there a sensible way of salvaging them for future (ab)use?
Cheers
I have had limited succes in flushing a shimano one out with Degreaser and then adding grease again. the seals are so crap you can pretty much do both without taking it appart
can run some light lube (chain oil or 3in1) into them to help them last longer. don't replace them till they start slipping - they can wear a lot before failure. - no moving parts under load innit.
+1 for flushing them out, degreaser, then oil.
use plenty, make sure theres nothing left in there except the bits that shimano put in!
works with freewheels too, but theres no gaurantee it wont be goosed anyway, so dont spend a fortune doing it.
One trick is to create an oil bath for the freewheel without having to remove the freewheel.
Find a plastic tub or an old bottle, cut the bottom off and the height should be around 5cm or so (you will need to experiment). Fill with oil then remove your back wheel and lay the wheel on the side with the freewheel dipped in the oil bath overnight.
Cheers all. I'll give those tips a try.
Not the cheapest option in the first place but buying a White industries freewheel was the best choice I ever made!
All fully serviceable, IIRC sideways sells all the parts if needed!
Shitmano freewheel 'seals' ? LOL,there aren't any !
WI all the way,I've still got one that's going strong after 4 or 5 years of Chase grinding mud.....
If the flush out and oil trick does not work then they are very easy to strip and service fully.
Leave it on the wheel and use a hammer and punch / 6" nail to unscrew the centre race CLOCKWISE (lh thread)- there are usually a couple of little holes in the race where you locate the nail.
Catch everything that falls out. Clean. Rebuild with new balls (available from any bike shop but will probably need 2 bags). Light oil on the pawls - do not use grease or they will stick. Very small line of grease to hold the balls. Reassembly can be quite fiddly but not impossible. I've revived loads of otherwise "dead" freewheels in this way - never catch on these bike parts that are serviceable with no special tools and £1 of components 🙂
However, I've now been running a WI freewheel for 3 years and that has truly been fit and forget......
When the cheap freewheel on my Solitude started to sound really dodgy, I just left the bike laid on its side overnight, having dribbled a load of oil onto the side of the freewheel. Seemed to sort it.
highly recommend the white industries freewheel as a replacement, will easily outlast 10 shimano/acs efforts
I'm not sure this bike warrants a WI freewheel, much as I took to racing SSCX at HTN.... 😀
I'll go for thr GT85 flush, followed by dribbling in oil and leaving it to stand. If that doesn't improve it, I'll go for the dismantling option....