The two prong freewheel tool setup was problematic, but you should be able to get it off when you need to do so. This is the procedure I always used in my years at the bike shop.
1. Freewheel tool into the freewheel 2. QR skewer back onto the wheel holding the freewheel tool snug against the freewheel 3. Freewheel tool flats get held TIGHT with your bench vice 4. Turn the wheel to break freewheel free 5. Remove skewer 6. Finish unthreading freewheel The bench vice is non-negotiable. You have to have a bench vice. If you can get it off with a bigass crescent wrench then it was never tight in the first place. If you skip step 2, or if you dont use a bench vice, you take on significant risk of damaging the slots in the freewheel body, or the tool or both. Once those flat slots become ramped slots, you could be hosed. For freewheels that are impossible to remove, you use a pin spanner or a drift punch to unscrew the bearing retainer, remove the sprockets part of the freewheel, let the bearings all fall on the floor. Pull the ratchet pawls and springs, and you'll be left with just the inner body, which will have places on it where you can squeeze that in your bench vice and get it off. This destroys the freewheel but allows you to use your wheel. On Apr 8, 1:07 pm, Minh <mgiangs...@gmail.com> wrote: > And for times when they get you into trouble. So i'll take the retro- > derailleur request from a recent thread to bring this up. For some > odd reason i've noticed that my inclination for bike parts leans > towards the old. After a dalliance with carbon fiber and suspension > in my youth (you should see my hardtail mt bike, carbon cranks from > 1998! magura brakes! carbon fiber suspension seat post!). at the old > age of 33 i'm only buying bike parts old then me or from an era older > then me. > > Anyway here's one of those situations where maybe i'm getting myself > into trouble buying the old stuff. I picked up this wheel recently > and it's an old phil wood design, from the pictures i'd guess early > 80's. Well it has a Shimano 600 freewheel, in general i love shimano > 600 stuff (two cranks, brakes, levers etc), but i'm hesitant to use > this wheel as is. The FW looks to be in ok condition. My concern is > that i've done some research and i know that getting this freewheel > off can be tricky, so i'm trying to decide now if i should attempt to > remove and replace with something more modern or ride it and pray that > i'll be able to remove it in a few years. This is an either or > because after reading the nightmares about getting this freewheel off > (and also tracking down the freewheel tool which is only made by one > small mfr still) i wouldn't re-mount it myself. > > And i really would like to use the hub for years to come, it's held up > this far no reason to think it won't keep going. > > http://www.flickr.com/photos/minhi/5599199529/ > > http://www.flickr.com/photos/minhi/5599781666/ > > And for those people who are going to tell me just to give up on > freewheels, sure i could've just gotten a shimano 105 cassette hub > wheel fort he same price, but i just love the fact that a 30 year old > phil wood wheel still spins smooth. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
