Help sought : removing helicomatic block seized to hub

[Philip Taylor]

Dear Colleagues -- I need to change the helicomatic
(Maillard) block on my wife's French lightweight, but
although the retaining ring came off without difficulty,
the block itself appears seized on the helical splines.
Moderate leverage by my LBS failed to shift it, and
moderate tapping from the rear has also failed. I am
reluctant to use a gear puller, because this would have to
press on the axle which would in turn place considerable
pressure on the hub bearings. Does anyone have experience
of removing a stubborn instance of one of these blocks, and
if so, what do you suggest ?

Philip Taylor

 

[Anonymous]

Philip TAYLOR posted ...

> Dear Colleagues -- I need to change the helicomatic
> (Maillard) block on my wife's French lightweight, but
> although the retaining ring came off without difficulty,
> the block itself appears seized on the helical splines.
> Moderate leverage by my LBS failed to shift it, and
> moderate tapping from the rear has also failed. I am
> reluctant to use a gear puller, because this would have to
> press on the axle which would in turn place considerable
> pressure on the hub bearings. Does anyone have experience
> of removing a stubborn instance of one of these blocks,
> and if so, what do you suggest ?

Brute force and ignorance worked for me .. though it was a
nackered hub anyway, so wouldn't have benefitted from being
'saved', I needed the block ..

--
Paul

(8(|) Homer rocks ..

 

[Mark Tranchant]

Philip TAYLOR wrote:

> Dear Colleagues -- I need to change the helicomatic
> (Maillard) block on my wife's French lightweight, but
> although the retaining ring came off without difficulty,
> the block itself appears seized on the helical splines.
> Moderate leverage by my LBS failed to shift it, and
> moderate tapping from the rear has also failed. I am
> reluctant to use a gear puller, because this would have to
> press on the axle which would in turn place considerable
> pressure on the hub bearings.

Couldn't you use some sort of tubular drift so that the
centre of the puller contacts the block mount (the hub side
of the helices) rather than the axle?

It's been 14 years since I had a Helicomatic block, so
I forget the exact layout of the bits - this may not
be possible.

> Does anyone have experience of removing a stubborn
> instance of one of these blocks, and if so, what do you
> suggest ?

Gallons of penetrating fluid and/or heat. Be careful with
the "and" bit in the last sentence.

--
Mark.

 

[Philip Taylor]

Mark Tranchant wrote:

> Couldn't you use some sort of tubular drift so that the
> centre of the puller contacts the block mount (the hub
> side of the helices) rather than the axle?
>
> It's been 14 years since I had a Helicomatic block, so I
> forget the exact layout of the bits - this may not be
> possible.
>
> Gallons of penetrating fluid and/or heat. Be careful with
> the "and" bit in the last sentence.

> Brute force and ignorance worked for me .. though it was
> a nackered hub anyway, so wouldn't have benefitted from
> being 'saved', I needed the block ..

Thanks, guys : in my case it's the hub that needs to be
preserved (I've just acquired a new block), so I think that
the tubular drift idea (wish I'd thought of that!) and the
penetrating oil (I had considerered that, but but yet got
around to trying it) will be my next two steps. Less sure
about the heat -- don't really want to drive the grease out
of the hub bearings -- and I'll let you know how I got on!

** Phil

 

[Tim Hall]

On Fri, 28 May 2004 09:49:26 +0100, Philip TAYLOR
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Thanks, guys : in my case it's the hub that needs to be
>preserved (I've just acquired a new block), so I think that
>the tubular drift idea (wish I'd thought of that!) and the
>penetrating oil (I had considerered that, but but yet got
>around to trying it) will be my next two steps.

Is a gert big socket a suitable candidate for being a
tubular drift? Or will it be too short?

Tim

 

[Philip Taylor -]

Tim Hall wrote:

> Is a gert big socket a suitable candidate for being a
> tubular drift? Or will it be too short?

Possible ideal As I have another block with which to
experiment, it will be easy to check whether the socket is
small enough to pass through the socket aperture yet large
enough to mate up with the hub.

** Phil.