FREEWHEEL cleaning

[Johnymak]

Just acquired this suntour perfect freewheel
I presume the whole unit should be a goldy colour
Any tips on how to clean it
I've tried degreaser with wire brush any suggestions ?

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Just acquired this suntour perfect freewheel
I presume the whole unit should be a goldy colour
Any tips on how to clean it
I've tried degreaser with wire brush any suggestions ?

Don't assue all the sprockets are made from or plated with, the same material. Any sprocket with fine thread (perhaps the smallest one on that freewheel), is different from the others. This is because threaded steel sprockets don't respond well to heat treatment and are thus different.

 

[rogerzilla]

Degreaser and a paintbrush should suffice. Don't forget to lubricate the internals afterwards by dripping oil between the rotating and fixed parts.

Avoid oxalic acid for rust removal on sprockets as it strips any black coating.

 

[cyberknight]

baby wipes

 

[Globalti]

I really would NOT soak that in degreaser or detergent, it will drive dirt into the bearings and lubrication out. Fit it to a wheel, sit down with the wheel on your knees and pull a towel or microfibre cloth, damped with paraffin if you like, back and forth between the sprockets so that they rotate continuously.

 

[fossyant]

+1 to Globalti. It's an old freewheel, it's unlikely to come up pristine.

Some freewheels have removable sprockets, but not all. Can't tell from that photo. My old 6 speeds were removable in the days when you could get spare sprockets.

 

[rrarider]

If you're feeling particularly fussy, then paraffin and a nylon bottle brush will remove the bulk of the crud.

 

[OnTheRopes]

Jizer, brushed on and then brushed between the sprockets and rinsed off

 

[rogerzilla]

You can, of course, take the whole thing apart. It's not that difficult if you have a suitable pin spanner (the Park red one fits most freewheel cones). Unscrew it clockwise*, as it's left-hand threaded, but do this over a bowl or something as all the bearings will drop out, possibly with the pawls and shims too. Reassembly is pretty obvious but you'll need some sort of thin grease to hold the balls in place until you get it back together. If the freewheel had a lot of wobble, try removing one of the shims when reassembling.

*it needs to be attached to a wheel to get sufficient purchase on it, or you can screw a LH HT2 BB cup into it and use the HT2 spanner to provide leverage against the pin spanner.

 

[Nigelnightmare]

These were made with the middle gear a different colour to aid in setting the chain line as you could see at a glance if it was on the middle gear.