Foot, I have a question for you. (or for anyone who knows the answer.)
I took apart the rear wheel of a woman's ten speed bike I dug out of the neighbors' trash. I'm trying to fix it up real nice for my wife so she'll want to join the kids and I riding bikes. This is an old Sears Ted Williams Free Spirit woman's bike, made by Puch in Austria about 35 years ago. It's dirty, but it's kind of nice.
You could hear lots of nasty grit in the bearings of the rear wheel and cassette. So I took it all apart and cleaned it up. I want to put it back together now, but I can't figure out how you get the cassette back on.
The problem is these little pawls that engage the ratchet on the inside of the cassette. You can see in the picture that there are these little wire springs that push the pawls out. The springs are kind of strong. I can get the springs under the pawls, and hold them in place with my fingers, but then my fingers are in the way of putting the cassette, on, so I have to let go, and the pawls and springs pop back open again and are in the way of the cassette going on.
There has to be a trick to hold the pawls closed so you can put the cassette back on. The manufacturer had to put it together somehow. Do you know the trick?
I was thinking of somehow wrapping dental floss around the whole hub to hold them closed until I get the cassette on and then magically releasing the dental floss and pulling it out once I get the cassette on. But I'm not sure how to make that work. My knot/lashing skills are lacking.
Of course, I also will need to put the ball bearings back and hope the grease holds them in place while I'm gingerly putting it all back together again. But at least I understand in theory how to do that part. Should the ball bearings be put on the lip inside the cassette, and the cassette brought up to the wheel from below, or should they be put in the lip on the wheel and the cassette brought down from above?