Vintage Bicycle Find

[TheMercenary]

Cool bike, looks like a Pee Wee Herman special.

[glatt]

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?

[gvidas]

It looks like you opened the freewheel mechanism rather than just taking off the cluster. I'm not entirely sure that was necessary, but what's done is done.

Sheldon Brown has a very thorough article on the topic, including a part on how to put it back together. Dental floss, yeah, but tie it to a rubber band: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/freewheels.html

[glatt]

Perfect!

For re-assembly, you can use thickish grease to stick the balls in place while you reassemble the unit. With the outer part of the freewheel large-side-up, first insert balls into its bearing race. Don't fill the race completely -- leave room for two or three more balls. The tricky part is the pawls. In days of yore, there were special bobby-pin-like clips to hold the pawls compressed against their springs while you re-assembled the freewheel. These are no longer available.

Instead of the special clips, you can use a rubber band with a piece of thread looped though it. Assemble the pawls to the freewheel core, then wrap the rubber band around them to hold them against their springs. You may also be able to get the pawls to seat by holding the freewheel large-side-up and moving the core from side to side as you rotate it clockwise.

Once the outer part of the freewheel is more-or-less in place, use the thread to pull the rubber band out through the middle of the freewheel.

That's exactly what I was looking for.

And I did need to take it fully apart. I should have taken pictures of the two rags and 30 Q-tips worth of foul grit and grime I got out of the bearings in the cassette. It moved, but sounded like there was a pound of sand in the bearings.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by glatt

Perfect!


That's exactly what I was looking for.

And I did need to take it fully apart. I should have taken pictures of the two rags and 30 Q-tips worth of foul grit and grime I got out of the bearings in the cassette. It moved, but sounded like there was a pound of sand in the bearings.

Looks like you solved this one, but I'll give you my two cents.
I took apart a freewheel a couple of times during my hyper vigilant OCD phase. When I worked at the shop we'd just rinse them in parts cleaner for a while and blow them out with compressed air. The sand isn't really a problem as most of the time the pawls are engaged and the free wheel isn't spinning, and when it is spinning it doesn't matter how messed up the bearing or races are for the most part. It's not like a wheel or Bottom Bracket where the bearings are under pressure while turning.

There is a bigger risk of things not going back together and then failing in use. Happened to a friend of mine whose freewheel suddenly froze and launched him off his bike onto his head. I wasn't there, that's what he claimed.

[glatt]

Thanks, Foot! I've solved it in theory. I've been too busy to get back to the project to put it together. Maybe this weekend.

Maybe in hindsight I didn't need to take it apart, but it feels good to know something that was so filthy is clean now. It's happier now. I just need to clean up the rest of the bike, fix a rubbing fender, and clamp the loose cable that goes to the rear brake to the frame. It's flopping all over the place, and is almost a foot longer than it needs to be. There must be a clip missing, but I can't figure out where it would have gone.