Help disassembling Schimano freewheel/hub

[The Eye]

Below find a link to detailed picture of the freewheel

Advice on how to disassemble it? What tools will I need?

The reason I want to disassemble it is to clean and repack the bearings?

Thanks for any advice/help.

http://www.technoscribe.net/schimano.html

 

[Bruce Lange]

>
> Advice on how to disassemble it? What tools will I need?
>
> The reason I want to disassemble it is to clean and repack the bearings?
>
>

Sheldon has an article about how to do it, but for good reason recommends
against it.

http://sheldonbrown.com/freewheels.html

Freewheel bearings are tiny, 1/8", and there are lots of them. They are
easy to loose and very difficult to reassemble. And they only turn when they
are not under load, so they are unlikely to need replacement.

You can inject oil into the freewheel, flushing out the old with enough of
it. I'm unsure of the best way to do this, but it can certainly be done. If
you do this the bearings should outlive the sprockets.

 

[Zog The Undeniable]

The Eye wrote:
> Below find a link to detailed picture of the freewheel
>
> Advice on how to disassemble it? What tools will I need?
>
> The reason I want to disassemble it is to clean and repack the bearings?
>
> Thanks for any advice/help.
>
> http://www.technoscribe.net/schimano.html
>
>
When I used freewheels I would occasionally remove them from the wheel
and trickle a light oil between the moving part and the static part at
the back. You can, of course, do this from the front while the
freewheel is installed, but it makes a mess of the spokes and may run
into the RH wheel bearing. Freewheel bearings are so lightly loaded
(and usually so badly adjusted anyway) that the lubricant is there
largely to prevent rust. Grease is actually a bad idea [1] as it may
gum up the pawls when it gets dirty, whereas oil can be flushed through,
taking the dirt with it.

Disassembly is fairly simple - reassembly is not. I've done it as an
intellectual exercise, and it went fine, but I don't think I'd bother again.

[1] although a dab of grease is usually needed to hold the balls in
place during reassembly, should you ignore the above advice ;-)