Comment restaurer une roue libre - YouTube

Restoring a freewheel

Hello everyone, today I am going to explain to you how to restore a

freewheel so why it is interesting to restore a freewheel because

on old freewheels it is difficult to find new

parts so as much to restore the freewheels so when I say restore, what

we're going to do is take it apart completely, we're going to clean it

and we're going to lubricate it and then reassemble it.

The goal of the game is that it leaves for several years and that it works really

well so it's a little bit advanced tutorial we will say, do not get into

it if you are new to bike mechanics,

you go see that there are still some small complexities and

above all the risk is that as we are going to open the freewheel, there are plenty of balls

inside that can go everywhere, there are small parts like the

pawls and springs which can easily be lost, so it's not

necessarily a tutorial for everyone but restoring a freewheel

is still interesting. In one of the last videos, I explained to

you how to adjust the freewheeling game, if you haven't seen this

video I put the link in the description below the video

and then I put the link here in the angle like that you will see the first

step which is in fact common since we are going to remove the same side of the

freewheel. For this video, I'm going to restore this freewheel which is a

4-speed freewheel, that's why it's interesting to restore

a freewheel because 4-speed freewheels are not very common,

you can easily find five speeds, the three speeds too, but

of the four speeds we find a little less

so when we have a freewheel, we might as well restore it so that it continues its life

and that we do not need to look for a part so this freewheel c 'is

an Atom 4 speed freewheel, it is in pretty

good condition, it has no play so we won't need to adjust the play, it

runs pretty well but it makes a rather high pitched sound so that means that it

lacks a little bit of lubrication inside and then it is a freewheel

which must be from the 50s so that means that it has perhaps been a long time since

she saw oil and grease so it really deserves to be

restored, immediately we will move on to the dismantling phase e

Disassembly

For disassembly, we will attack from the outer side of the freewheel so there

I positioned the Atom freewheel wrench on the vice and I can fix the

freewheel on it and as you saw in the last one. video, we are going to remove

this washer which is screwed and unscrewed backwards, i.e. we

will unscrew it clockwise so for that all you need is a

pin punch and with a hammer, we are going to position the pin chaser in the

small holes and we are going to type a few sharp knocks

here, there it moves well and we can unscrew the washer as necessary

so there when I explained it to you in my last video , we are not going to unscrew the

washer completely to avoid dropping the balls and what we are going to

do is that we will use a first box and there we will take out the

freewheel, here we are, we will put the freewheel in the box we will completely

unscrew the washer and there we have access to the balls,

well there is still a small pe u of grease and at that moment we are going to remove

all the balls in this box, there you have it and the last one that doesn't want to come

and here we have the first balls on the

outside now what we are going to do is we will take a second

box and at that moment we will open the freewheel and here it is and there you see that there

are also a lot of balls and therefore there we really have access to the body of

the freewheel. On the body of the freewheel that we have just removed, we can

see the two pawls, there are freewheels where there are four clicks and there

are only two it is often like that so they are metal blades which

are mounted on springs, it is these two pawls which will allow

freewheeling since these two pawls will be positioned inside the

part which includes the pinions and here we have like gears , in fact

are like the teeth of wolves, they are also called teeth of wolves

and therefore the pawls slide in one direction and in

the other it looks a bit like fish scales in the other it will

come to a halt and there it will cause the freewheel when you are going to

pedal, then when you are no longer going to pedal, the freewheel will slide on these

pawls, so here what we are going to do is that we are going to clean all that, it is

mainly to clean the pawls and the springs because there you see

that there is the old grease. sse, old oil and therefore impurities and there it

works well but sometimes all these impurities block the pawls and therefore

it blocks the mechanism so we will clean all the parts, the balls, the

freewheel body, I advise you on rather cleaning

it with diesel because the diesel is slightly greasy and therefore it will still

allow you to lubricate a little and once we have cleaned

there we will go on to reassemble

After cleaning

I cleaned all the parts, the balls, the body of the freewheel, it is

important to clean all this because it allows to check the condition of the balls,

the condition of the ball seats inside the freewheel, sometimes we has a ball

that is broken in two or a ball that is no longer round but which is rather square

so it allows you to check the condition of the mechanics because you do

not dismantle a freewheel every day, to be there so I took the opportunity to

dismantle the pawls and springs, the pawls are these p small steel parts

, that's what creates the freewheel

mechanism and these small parts also make the characteristic sound

of a freewheel so there are pawls that are made of steel and then each pawl

is accompanied of its spring then most of the time these are

the springs which are made of brass and it is also interesting to remove them to

properly clean the body of the freewheel because there are often a lot

of impurities lodged in the inside and then again it allows checking

the condition of the pawls and springs.

Reassembly The reassembly

phase is really the

most complicated moment of the operation because you can see that there are still a

lot of balls, there are pawls, there are springs and you will have to

manage to get all of that into the freewheel so there you really have to

work in boxes, on a clear work surface, because if

you start to lose balls it will still be problematic for the

rest of the operation so the first thing to do is to

position the grease on the surface of

the outer balls so using a brush we will put the grease on the surface

of the balls then the grease, as always that makes

several I tell you this for several purposes the first use

of course is to lubricate the mechanism, the second use is that it will

allow us to stick the balls well on the scope and once they are

placed they will not move so that's important to put on tre

is really the only place where you have to put grease in a

freewheel, above all you shouldn't put grease on the pawls because in the long

term it risks sticking them and that's not good. I put

grease all around the perimeter of the scope and I will be able to start

positioning the balls so the balls are there and I will use as

always a small pliers to catch balls one after the other and

for them. position. The little trick, you see that I did not reposition

the pawls and the springs, quite simply because the pawls

would have hampered me to position the balls, you see that where I

position the balls normally there is the pawl which is located here

and so that, it would have been awkward

so there it is really a work of patience because there must be

close to fifty very small balls to position and there you must not

lose them and you have to align you see that we quickly understand the usefulness of

putting on the fat and here is the last ball is in place, it takes a little while

and there you have to be really patient and especially not to lose balls now

that the balls are placed I'm going to be able to reposition the springs

and pawls, but this spring and pawl mechanism, I'm not going to

grease it, I'm going to lubricate it with fine oil, petroleum jelly.

The advantage of this oil is that over time it does not stick so there is no

risk of sticking the pawls so I am going to reassemble the springs which are

here, so the first spring goes up like that here, if you have big

fingers like me you can also help yourself with a pair of

tweezers or tweezers and the ratchet will come to position itself here,

there it is well at the bottom and here it comes out well, once everything it

is well assembled, I will be able with vaseline oil to lubricate both

the spring and the pawl and now I'm going to move on to the second one

so as always the resort

is having trouble getting in there, it is better and then the pawl ,

it's a bit it's a bit of watchmaking, we work on very

small parts so there we position the spring, the

pawl and it must work well,

it makes spring well and there we will be able to lubricate with the right oil

. There we really finished the reassembly of the internal mechanics

now it will be a question of coming to close the box.

The balls, the springs, the pawls are in place, now we arrive at

the critical moment of the operation, it is really the most problematic moment

because we will have to close the freewheel so on one side we have the game with

the pawls which are opened by the springs and the balls and on the other

side we will add on top like a hat the part of the freewheel where

there are the pinions so there you will really have to work above

it '' a box because in this operation

most of the time we don't get it right the first time and the risk is to have

marbles going right to left so if you have a box the marbles

will fall into the box otherwise it will be problematic you

left for ten minutes in search of the lost life in the garage

so we will try together to put it together, you will see that it is not obvious

but there is a little trick anyway to facilitate the process. 'history. So that you can

see clearly I did not place myself in a box, I only use a cover

that will collect the balls that would like to fall from the body of the

freewheel so the first thing to do is to position your fingers in

the box. 'inside the freewheel body like that and then we will place the

part with the sprockets. To place it, we will come and

put it by turning it anti-clockwise, that

is to say a little as if we were freewheeling since we have the pawls

that interfere and by doing that, that will fold them back inside

the freewheel teeth of the freewheel and this is where we will see if there are any falling marbles or not

! Well there you see, I succeeded the first time,

there is no ball that has fallen now it will be a

much easier game since we will come and position the balls that are here on

the outside. Now we are going to place the balls that are on the outside that's

not complicated they are not likely to fall so at first me what

I do is that I lubricate with vaseline oil

that is more to lubricate the inner mechanism and the wolf teeth

since it is quite complicated to do it before assembly and then what

we are going to do is that we are going to come and lubricate the outer track

there too to lubricate well and also to glue the balls

so that's not complicated it's a bit like when you fit a headset

, the advantage also of grease, if

you have understood the principle of grease, there is some on the part outer

frame side and on the inner part, the spoke side part, in

fact this grease it plays the role of a seal, it will prevent water from

entering inside the freewheel so your freewheel will last longer

long time. Once the bearing of the balls is well greased,

we will be able to reposition the balls but before that, be careful not to forget to

reposition the small washers which are used to adjust the play on the freewheel

Here are our washers, we put them well at the bottom, well in Here we go and now

we will be able to install the balls one after the other

so there it is easier because the groove is hollow, it is not open,

so it can be positioned easily, there must be something thirty marbles

to place, we are a little at the end so we have to stay focused, be

careful, not to fall marbles and it will go by itself

and voila, the last marble is in place, now we just have to

screw the outer washer so this washer despite everything the balls

press on it so we will grease it like that at least we are sure that there

will be grease everywhere so there we put grease on the

washer and we will be able to screw this washer

so I'll call you back that it is screwed upside down so we will screw in an

anti-clockwise direction. It is important to take

the washer well by hand, we will screw it as best we can, there it is interesting

because at least now the freewheel is closed and therefore we can

transport it as we want, it doesn't There is no risk that the balls will fall, that's it,

the freewheel is closed so now we will position the freewheel on the vise

and we will block the washer using the pin punch. As for disassembly

we will use the vice, the freewheel wrench, a pin punch and a hammer

and we will tighten the washer, there we will be able to tighten it a little more, you see that the

excess grease comes out and then we will tighten the pin chaser by tapping a

few times. And there you have it, our freewheel is blocked, obviously it makes less

noise than before since it is still well greased and there we will have a

freewheel that will be able to last over time and that's still good.

You see that it is quite possible to disassemble and maintain a freewheel

so it is not necessarily something that is within the reach of everyone,

if you are new to bicycle mechanics do not perhaps get started. not immediately in

there, however, what you can do is train on

an old freewheel, learn to take it apart, learn to look at how

it works and above all learn to reassemble it because it is still the

the most critical phase and above all trying not to lose balls in

any case it is interesting to know how to restore a freewheel, especially on

old parts that are not easily found because restoring a

freewheel is to prolong life freewheel and then freewheel it's

still interesting on a bike, it's what transmits the power of your legs

to the rear wheel so it's still interesting that

your freewheel works well, so j hope this tutorial will be useful to you one

day or the other and as always I say to you soon for other videos