repost from rbt: Shimano/Suntour compatability (Freewheel)

[Hell and High Water]

So far I've received about twenty VERY AUTHORITATIVE answers to this
question.

All of them seem to disagree....



I have an older bike that originally came with Suntour components.
Downtube shifters, double front, seven back.

I wanted to try STI shifters, so a LBS put on Shimano Sora
brake/shifters. They said the Suntour rear
derailleur/freewheel/chain/etc. were good.


Worked pretty good, but I had some problems shifting. Chain searching
for gears. If I went up one and it searched, I'd go up two, then back
one, and it was fine.

Anyway... *some* problems.



Second LBS said the problem was the rear derailleur. Had to be Shimano
to work. (Again, freewheel/chain were good.)


Went with the Shimano Sora rear derailleur and the bike shifts much
better. I felt like that made a noticeable improvement.

However, every once in a while there's a weird SKIP on the back cog.
Almost like something missed a tooth or two.

Someone in a newsgroup told me that the Shimano freewheel and the
Suntour freewheel are different, and I should go all Shimano.


(BTW, none of this is exactly killing me financially. This level of
gear is not terribly expensive.)


I would feel great about going all Shimano, but I would be a bit
irritated if I still had that skipping.


Any thoughts/suggestions?


I looked around Sheldon's page, but could not find this exact subject.


TIA!

-Bob