I have harped on about this before but am now going to do something as I have a tool! (Have not am ) When I pull a free hub to bitts should I expect hundreds of tiny balls to scatter themselves all around the garage floor? I remember Brucey talking about shimming these freehubs. Where do the shims come from? Another free hub or a bit of bean can? Any other advice.?Apart from telling me not to bother that is. Left hand thread I think.
but am now going to do something as I have a tool!
Did you make it or were you carrying a shovel as a rocking horse passed by?
Certainly be prepared for a mass exodus of dozens of tiny balls, I accidentally opened one on the back of a farmers trailer, no chance of ever finding them.
Open it in a biscuit tin. You will be removing some of the total thickness of the shims in there, so with luck you will be able to find a working combination of shims within the thing.....otherwise, a trip to your LBS's scrap bin, armed with chocolate biscuits, of course.
Top tip from Brucey about removing the seal from the freehub to access the lock ring. I made a tool which essentially was a strip of steel held in a vice which I used to loosen the lock ring. The final removal was done over a round washing up bowl to ensure the balls didn't go AWOL! In the event if you don't disturb the freehub itself you shouldn't loose any balls unless you lift the freehub of the body. As previous posters have said you may only need to loose a shim to reduce freeplay.
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45 dollars for a tool to be used perhaps once every two years, when a complete new hub (which will provide a new freehub, axle, cones, bearings, skewer) would cost less than that? I don't see the point for medium-low range Shimano hubs. By all means, if one has the time to do such job on cheap hubs, it can be amusing and a good experience. Although useful, I won't wait until full strip down of the freehub needs to be done. Most often, by simply removing the back seal and flushing with medium-weight oil, that done once or twice a year is a quick and effective treatment.
That tool should work on all modern Shimano freehubs that are not made of titanium (those usually have 4 notches). The thread is counter-clockwise to undo the outer race, and is better to loosen for the first 1/2 turn with the freehub still fitted on the hub; then once the thread of the outer race is loose, the freehub can be unscrewed from the hub body and open entirely in a suitable tray. The bearings can be held in place with very light grease.
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are...
Hi, Be care full in removing the shims, I did this and left a thin shim after removing a thicker one and then the thin shim can easily then deform, Probably better with a small amount of play than none and a notching when turned.......I did warn you.
I have never had a problem with a freehub (until I took one apart) there again I don't spend much time freewheeling
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
- whatever the quality level of the freehub body, it is (IMHO) worth re-shimming one with free play in it, if you can do so. The resulting (play-free) freehub ought to last much longer (much longer than a brand new one even, which is liable to pretty soon have more play in it than an adjusted one), for the simple reason that once the freehub isn't orbiting eccentrically, the seals (at both ends of the freehub body) have a fighting chance of sealing rather than just wearing out prematurely.
- If you don't want to strip the whole thing apart when re-shimming, you don't have to. If the LH threaded cup is unscrewed one turn only, then the wheel is turned so that the freehub is uppermost, the cup can be unscrewed leaving all the balls in situ.
- to lift the shims, use two 'paddle tools' which can be made from pieces of old spoke which have been hammered flat and then dressed. You will find that you can slide the shims from side to side a little before lifting one edge.
- if you can avoid doing so, don't remove all the shims: usually there is a thick one at the bottom of the shim stack and this may as well stay. If you lift all the shims, balls can drop into the pawl pockets, which is a bad thing. If you do drop balls into the pawl pockets, they can usually be removed using a magnetised spoke or jeweller's screwdriver.
- as per other threads, you may find that lapping the back of the cup is required to get the adjustment spot on.
- the tightening torque ought to be comparable to, (or a little less than) the torque required to remove it in the first place.
- bodies with effective seals on the back face of the freehub body will run nicely in gear oil. Bodies with no (or worn) seals usually run better in a semi-fluid grease.
Call me cynical if you like, but I'd suppose that if it is the same stuff they use in new ones, it mightn't be that good, because it seems to me that they can go rusty inside pretty quickly unless you use something different in them.
Same goes for their bearing grease too, come to that. An LBS near me uses it and I see the results; rusty bearings whilst the nearby grease is still 'clean-looking'.
I've even had an unused shimano hub start to go rusty within, even though it was stored indoors; the rust was forming under what appeared to be an intact fill of factory grease....
Well so far it was fairly painless. Re shimmed 3 now and all seem to be running more smoothly than before. Used some thin waterproof grease which I know, from experience with other freehubs, won't stick the pawls and seems to last . Worried that I have missed something as its a damn site easier than getting the cones right. Now to get one freehub in a mates lathe and knock the cassette stops back a bit. Done that with older Hope hubs and a complete 11 speed cassette pops on. I used this tool. Arrived next day and seems well made. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131360289469? ... EBIDX%3AIT
mattsccm wrote:Well so far it was fairly painless..... Worried that I have missed something as its a damn site easier than getting the cones right.
yup, it isn't that bad once you have got the idea, eh?
Now to get one freehub in a mates lathe and knock the cassette stops back a bit. Done that with older Hope hubs and a complete 11 speed cassette pops on.
yup, I have found that you can do this with steel shimano freehub bodies (although I used to machine 7s ones for improved dish; 8-10s ones are already thinner at that point); I used a tipped tool because it looked like it would knock the wotsits out of a HSS tool; if your mate's lathe has any slack in the toolpost mountings, this'll show it up. Just don't overdo it, because if you make it too thin, the freehub body might break.
[For those who don't have a lathe handy, you can (with care....) modify a freehub body by using a dremel tool; works OK but you need to be very careful and it takes ages to do it.]
It's hollow like a cassette tool so 1/2 inch drive goes in or big spanner. Thought about the bolt but haven't needed it. Used an old hub clamped in the vice to hold the freehub and it was stable enough. Nothing was seized though. Machining Hope freehubs was fine and a primitive file test suggests that the Shimano hubs may be a touch softer. Swapping a few minutes of my mates time for a chrap bottle of lager seems a better investment of time than me messing things up with a dremel.
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