Freewheel removal tool?
- Thread starter Gibbo8907
- Start date
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rogerzilla
Legendary Member
It's too mucky to see!
Some freewheels have no removal facility. When they're worn out you dismantle them in situ (may require a pin spanner and two chainwhips) then use a vice on the pawl flats to unscrew the body.
Some freewheels have no removal facility. When they're worn out you dismantle them in situ (may require a pin spanner and two chainwhips) then use a vice on the pawl flats to unscrew the body.
Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
https://sheldonbrown.com/freewheels.html
The normal Shimano splined cassette lockring tool has longer splines than necessary so @tyred 's advice is well worth following if you use that (once it comes free, stop and remove the QR or nut, before screwing it off). I have a tool with shorter splines (ETA: not the tool I use for undoing cassette lockrings) which means the moment applied (to the tool) is closer to the threads (of the freewheel) and is more stable. Tool upside down in secure vice and use the wheel (with tyre on) as a decent lever is my preferred technique (turning it the correct way - clockwise
).
The normal Shimano splined cassette lockring tool has longer splines than necessary so @tyred 's advice is well worth following if you use that (once it comes free, stop and remove the QR or nut, before screwing it off). I have a tool with shorter splines (ETA: not the tool I use for undoing cassette lockrings) which means the moment applied (to the tool) is closer to the threads (of the freewheel) and is more stable. Tool upside down in secure vice and use the wheel (with tyre on) as a decent lever is my preferred technique (turning it the correct way - clockwise
).
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overmind
My other bike is a Pinarello
- Location
- Reading, Berkshire
I would recommend a cheater bar. I struggled for years removing these on various kids bikes. I got a 2ft length of scaffold pole from a metal recycling place and now slide it on the end of a large adjustable spanner. It takes seconds to loosen it after which you can usually do the rest by hand.
Make sure you use a large spanner though. Once I used a cheater bar with a small spanner and cracked the spanner. That extra leverage is quite something.
Make sure you use a large spanner though. Once I used a cheater bar with a small spanner and cracked the spanner. That extra leverage is quite something.
Once a Wheeler
…always a wheeler
Agree with rogerzilla. Just to make plain what rogerzilla describes: the vice needs to be a securely bolted-down bench vice and you proceed by turning the wheel to unscrew it from the freewheel body which is clamped solid in the vice. Be warned, you may hear many a spoke twang before it jumps free.
Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
Don't listen to the doom-mongers upthread. You'll be fine.
No; what is the reason you're changing it? Can't be just because it's got a bit of dirt on it, surely.
NB New chain as well or quite likely to skate.
rogerzilla
Legendary Member
The Shimano freewheel removal tool is not the same as a (current) cassette removal tool. Freewheels take UG (Ultraglide) which is fractionally smaller than HG (Hyperglide) for cassettes. Some aftermarket removers are in between and do either (sometimes it pays to buy cheap!) but the Shimano ones are definitely different.
I sit on the wheel and use a big spanner plus Mr. Mallet.
I sit on the wheel and use a big spanner plus Mr. Mallet.
andrew_s
Legendary Member
- Location
- Gloucester
The minor diameter (at the base of the remover splines) is the same, but the freewheel splines are 0.5 mm tall, whilst lockring splines are 1 mm tall.
Consequently you can use a freewheel tool on a lockring, but not a lockring tool on a freewheel (crappy tolerances aside).
The freewheel tool has longer splines because freewheels get a lot tighter than lockrings, and you need the extra length to avoid stripping the splines (which is why Mr Shimano made the short lockring splines a bit taller).
Be aware that bike shops can and sometimes do describe lockring tools as freewheel tools, so take care. I'd go by the spline length myself.
HG and UG are sprocket tooth designations rather than anything to do with splines as such. UG cassettes had screw-on top gear sprockets rather than lockrings, and freewheels have come in both UG and HG flavours, both using the same remover.
Last time I had to remove a freewheel without the benefit of a good bench vice, it was a 32 mm ring spanner on a loosely bolted on remover, wheel vertical, step up onto the end of the spanner, dip the knee, and kick down hard. It helped that there was a conveniently positioned wall corner next to a door.
