Noise From 6 Speed Uniglide Hub

[woodbine]

My 25 yesr old British Eagle MTB has been in storage for the last 20 years. I am putting the old girl back on the road. I have noticed that if the rear wheel is off the ground, and I pedal to get the rear wheel spinning, them let the wheel freewheel - there is a loudish roaring rumble from the rear hub area. It's worst with the chain on the smallest cog, and shifting the chain inboard to the larger gears sees the noise decrease quite a bit.As the noise happens only when freewheeling, I'm assuming its from the freehub - would this be correct?

One thing that may possibly have caused a problem is when I cleaned the dried on oily crud from the rear hub, gears, derailleur, etc. I used a paint brush and petrol - but was careful to lean the bike over to avoid as much dirt being washed from the petrol treatment and following wash off with water into the workings. Is it possible that some dirt has found it's way into the freehub? Can the actual freehub be dismantled, or is it a sealed unit?

Although the bike is old, it hasn't really done a big mileage, so I'm hoping the situation is salvageable. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[lpretro1]

Firstly change the hub bearings - the grease has probably dried up. So repack with some nice new stuff. If that doesn't work then it is likely the freehub body itself - try dripping a bit of light oil through it. If that doesn't work then you have the problem of trying to find a 'no longer produced' item or changing your wheel and that could be a problem as you'll find newer wheels have wider axles. Welcome to the intricate world of restoring old bikes

 

[woodbine]

Thanks for your reply. It does sound more like a rumbling bearing noise more than anything.Though I'm wondering why the noise is only when freewheeling - maybe when pedalling, the tension on the rear axle, etc silences it. Then there's the question of why the noise reduces as I change to larger cogs.

How would be the best way to put oil into the freehub? Remove the wheel and lay flat - presumably with cogs uppermost? Do I remove cassette? Is there a hole on the hub for oil to go in?

 

[Gravity Aided]

If you have a freewheel, you use a freewheel remover and take the entire assembly off, and soak it to clean it, then oil. Now, if you have a cassette, the first little round thing is the lockring, then your first gear, then a spacer, and so on. You should keep them in the same direction and orientation, replacing them in the reverse order you removed them. But here, the rotating mechanism is on the hub, and quite difficult from here to remove that rotating part due to the myriad ball bearings and pawls. Sill, this should give you a good opportunity to clean this. Here's some more about this.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcgz3-XyNkI


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9gIEG1db0s


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4tQcAc9Lo0https


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zWYLb2RMPA

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/k7.html

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