Screw-on screw-up

Fred Steele

In a moment of absolute stupidity I removed an old Campy rear hub from a wheel after a crack was found in the rim - without unscrewing the freewheel first. Thus I have a hub with a freeheel attached and no obvious way of gripping it tightly enough to unscrew it without at least scratching the hub.

I've since cold-set my frame to take an eight-speed freewheel, so it's not the end of the world, but still it vexes me.

Anyone have any ideas (apart from building a wheel around it!)?

nicklouse

Oh nice.

bolt it to something via the spoke holes?

Or remove the axle and bearings and have a look to see if there is any means of holding it from the inside?

SDP

there used to be a tool listed ( i am going back a few years ) for this.. i only remember coz i once had aback wheel trashed by a car wanted to rescue the campag tipo hub....

i ended up junking it ...as no local shops etc had the tool due to its cost ...

try & rebuild it radial on OPPOSITE SIDE to block really tight & give it a whirl ...might sacrifice the rim as well tho :-(

Monty Dog

Try securing the end of a piece of webbing to the hub (via spoke hole?) and then wrapping the webbing a couple of turns clockwise around the hub body before holding the other end of the webbing securely in a bench vise. With the wind-up and friction you should be able to hold the body securely enough to unscrew the freewheel. I'd put some tape around the hub flanges to stop them getting scuffed too.

dennisn

Monty Dog wrote:

Try securing the end of a piece of webbing to the hub (via spoke hole?) and then wrapping the webbing a couple of turns clockwise around the hub body before holding the other end of the webbing securely in a bench vise. With the wind-up and friction you should be able to hold the body securely enough to unscrew the freewheel. I'd put some tape around the hub flanges to stop them getting scuffed too.

Good idea. I have seen what are called strap wrenches that are good for getting a grip
on things you don't want all scraped up.

Dennis Noward

Fred Steele

Thanks for all the advice - I'll see if I can get some straps around it.

If I put the freewheel removal tool in a vice, push the freewheel onto the splines and then turn the hub with straps, possibly secured with old spokes threaded through the flange and twisted with pliers... :?

C1234

I've done this once by wrapping an old bit if chain around the small cog, then putting that in a vice, then using a chain whip as normal. The old chain should protect the freewheel.

Fred Steele

I'm not trying to remove sprockets, but the entire freewheel body from the hub. A chainwhip can't achieve this due to the freewheel making the sprockets "free" in respect of anticlockwise rotation. Sorry if I'm missing something - if so I have 2 chainwhips..

dennisn

Fred Steele wrote:

I'm not trying to remove sprockets, but the entire freewheel body from the hub. A chainwhip can't achieve this due to the freewheel making the sprockets "free" in respect of anticlockwise rotation. Sorry if I'm missing something - if so I have 2 chainwhips..

You sound like you're ok. It's a freewheel not a cassette, right? Chain whips are useless on a freewheel.

Dennis Noward

aracer

Fred Steele wrote:

Thanks for all the advice - I'll see if I can get some straps around it.

If I put the freewheel removal tool in a vice, push the freewheel onto the splines and then turn the hub with straps, possibly secured with old spokes threaded through the flange and twisted with pliers... :?

If you can get spokes through the flange then why not lace some to an old rim?

Fred Steele

Yeah I might give it a go lacing an old rim. Will be good practice for my first wheel build that I keep putting off!

Yes it's a 6-speed screw-on Regina BX freewheel.
The hub took me around Holland twice with an axle-bending amount of weight, as well as a year and a half of 30-mile a day commuting and the hell of the washout 2007 Dunwich Dynamo, in addition to whatever it did in it's previous 20 years of life before I got my mits on it, so I have some sentimental attachment to it. Maybe it will adorn my mantlepiece.
Apart from cold-setting the frame, making the switch to 8 speed freehub was easy and had no compatibility problems due to good-old friction levers.

I've ordered a 2008 Focus Cayo though!

rustychisel

swath the hub in a rag and then secure it in a vise, freewheel up. Put cluster removing tool and hold in place with the QR skewer, then a spanner (sorry, wrench) and breaker bar to increase leverage, and away you go. Check to make sure you're not scruffing up the hub.

It's the reverse - so to speak - of the old 'bus driver's wheel' routine for undoing a freewheel on a built up wheel, whereby the tool was clamped in the vise and the wheel mounted on top. When you feel it 'give' remove from vise and unscrew fully.