freewheel clean bodge?

mountaincookie

I have an old freewheel that I want to flush out with degreaser....but I don't have the tools (and it's not worth spending money on it)

Is it ok just to spray degreaser in from the front, flush out with loads of water, then keep applying a thickish oil through the gap?

nicklouse

what free wheel?

i would just grease it. nothing else.

mountaincookie

It's a 6 speed 'normandy' (it's off a road bike from the 80's....I did post this in the road bike section but I didn't get a reply so I posted it here )

the thing is I can't get grease to it - I need one of those 4 pronged spanner things to take it apart, hence why I was thinking of stripping it of grease (by spraying degreaser into the rachet section from the front - where the gap is) and then dribbling oil in the same gap because grease dosn't drip (obviously) so can't get in there

Hope that makes sense

Cheers

petejuk

You could try it that way but you'll never know if its properly greased. You can buy the four pronged spanner things fairly cheaply. Velosolo used to sell them (on internets). Failing that, speak to your lbs and see if they can loan you one.

cooldad

If it drips in, it will just drip out again.

stubs

Its probably not worth it and is dangerous but a bodge we used to do is as follows

1. Soak freewheel in diesel or paraffin spinning the freewheel and agitating it a lot of black crap will come out

2 Soak it in clean diesel/paraffin to get rid of the dirty diesel/paraffin

3 Allow to drain and dry on newspaper for a couple of days. Rinse and repeat if black crap still comes out.

4 Get a tin that will fit the freewheel half fill it with grease heat tin over a low flame till grease is thin and runny, dunk feewheel allow it to simmer for a few minutes and carefully agitate the freewheel to make sure the hot runny grease gets into it. Take it off heat remove freewheel let it cool and clean off the excess grease.

Its a dodgy thing to do dont come running to me if you go up in flames or blow yourself up. Like I say its not worth it buy a new one you cheapskate.

Deputy Dawg

cooldad wrote:

If it drips in, it will just drip out again.

+1

I've kept an old knackered BB going while on holiday with chain lube but it needed reapplying at least a couple of times a day.

wordnumb

mountaincookie wrote:

the thing is I can't get grease to it - I need one of those 4 pronged spanner things to take it apart

Ah, you can bodge your way into one of these with a little lateral thinking. Bearings will fly in a hundred directions if you're not careful.

mountaincookie

Hmm cheers for the advice

not so sure about the paraffin

Might just leave it and when it dies get a new one for £20- soughted

stubs

You can get them cheaper than that

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Shimano-6-Speed-Freewheel-%2f-Rear-Cogs-14-28T-Screw-On_W0QQitemZ390233914679QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=230894905918&rvr_id=230894905918&cguid=b721476e12c0a0aad4b539b5fff16ee7