Well, after a month of trying to remove a SunTour Perfect from the Sanshin ProAm rear hub on the Romic tourer using Kroil, and many months of trying the same with a Sachs 7-spd FW stuck on a Campy Record hub, success at last. After many trys with the FW remover and a huge wrench, sledge hammer, bench vise, etc, I finally concluded these FW's were not coming off with the remover, so I resorted to the more extreme measures that sacrifice the FW.
Used a drift punch to remove the lockrings/cones that hold the outer body to the inner (LH thread of course). At this point, of course, all the little balls fall out, so it it extremely difficult to reassemble the FW, even if you don't ruin it removing it. Except on the Sachs, I found the bearings are actually caged, which I've never seen before on an FW. Now there is a good idea - why didn't anyone else do that?
Clamped the Sachs in the bench vise - the section around the pawls is flatted and makes a good wrench purchase. I've done this several times on FWs with stripped remover notches, but wasn't sure it would work when the problem was the FW being frozen on the hub. But after a couple of hard turns, it broke loose with a load POP. Encouraged, I removed the outer body on the SunTour, where all the bearings did fall out - no cages here. Clamped it in the bench vise, but it still wouldn't budge. So I decided to implement the FINAL SOLUTION, slotting through the FW with a Dremel tool, as suggested by Harvey Sachs below. A couple of hard turns in the bench vise on the now deeply slotted FW, and it came loose at last. Of course the FWs are now toast, except one can of course save the cogs for use on another FW. But the wheels are now saved. Seeing as how MLK Day is Monday, I think the appropriate comment is: FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST, THANK THE LORD I'M FREE AT LAST.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA
> From: Harvey Sachs <hmsachs@verizon.net>
\r?\n> Subject: re - [CR]Help !! Freeing stuck freehweels
\r?\n> To: jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net, "Classic Rendezvous" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
\r?\n> Date: Sunday, January 4, 2009, 4:28 PM
\r?\n> Jerry, there have been some good suggestions for removing
\r?\n> the FW; let me
\r?\n> offer my variants. First, you don't say if it is a
\r?\n> Suntour Perfect or a
\r?\n> Winner. The former is still very common, and can be
\r?\n> sacrificed if needed.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> So, i would start by taking the FW apart. The cone ring is
\r?\n> LH thread,
\r?\n> and I usually start it with a little pin driver. The Winner
\r?\n> differs in
\r?\n> having a proper lock ring for the cone. Just pull the stuff
\r?\n> off, saving
\r?\n> the ball bearings, pawls, and springs. Now, you have two
\r?\n> options:
\r?\n> Disassemble the FW you want to put on, and reassemble its
\r?\n> outer parts on
\r?\n> the stuck inner is one way to go. Since you can pull off
\r?\n> the inner cogs
\r?\n> on a Suntour w/o removing the FW, if you plan to stay
\r?\n> with Suntour
\r?\n> there is no real reason to take the core off the hub, even
\r?\n> to replace
\r?\n> spokes.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> The more elegant and long-term better approach begins by
\r?\n> gently clamping
\r?\n> the core in a sturdy bench vise. DON't use a pipe
\r?\n> wrench for this, since
\r?\n> it will try to deform the threads and crush the aluminum
\r?\n> hub body. Just
\r?\n> gently clasp it in the vise. Now turn the wheel to remove
\r?\n> it.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Still stuck? My next step is to cut a slot in the fw with
\r?\n> a Dremel
\r?\n> (actually, I'd finish this with a die grinder with a
\r?\n> carbide bit.
\r?\n> Cutting a slot in the hub threads is not a grave sin, but
\r?\n> don't go
\r?\n> deeper than needed. Now you can unwrap the FW from the hub
\r?\n> without
\r?\n> further damage.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Caution: all of these approaches should only be attempted
\r?\n> when there are
\r?\n> no children within a km or so, as otherwise they might
\r?\n> learn an entirely
\r?\n> new vocabulary.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> harvey sachs
\r?\n> mcLean va usa.
\r?\n> (where there are a few spare Suntour FW for emergencies,
\r?\n> and where the
\r?\n> Suntour is held in far higher regard than the Regina of the
\r?\n> same era).
\r?\n>
\r?\n>
\r?\n> +++++++++++++++
\r?\n> Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 10:10:12 -0800
\r?\n> From: Jerome & Elizabeth Moos
\r?\n> <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>
\r?\n> To: CLASSIC RENDEZVOUS
\r?\n> <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
\r?\n> Subject:
\r?\n> Message-ID:
\r?\n> <480480.15148.qm@web82205.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
\r?\n> In-Reply-To:
\r?\n> <868839.40882.qm@web82203.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
\r?\n> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
\r?\n> MIME-Version: 1.0
\r?\n> Precedence: list
\r?\n> Reply-To: jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net
\r?\n> Message: 1
\r?\n>
\r?\n> When disassembing the Romic touring bike I was unable to
\r?\n> remove the
\r?\n> SunTour FW from the very nice Sunshine ProAm rear hub. I
\r?\n> really want to
\r?\n> use the original wheels, but want to change FW size.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> I tried the huge crescent wrench and even clamping the
\r?\n> remover in a
\r?\n> bench vice and turning the wheel. Also applied Kroil, even
\r?\n> though Kroil
\r?\n> has yet to free up anther stuck FW in about three months of
\r?\n> trying. I
\r?\n> even heated the FW with a propane torch, no luck. I applied
\r?\n> the heat to
\r?\n> the inner cog of the FW, but so far haven't heated the
\r?\n> alloy hub flange
\r?\n> directly. Dare I apply the flame to the hub, or will
\r?\n> aluminum alloy
\r?\n> melt at that temperature? Any other secret ticks?
\r?\n> Coca-Cola? Ammonia?
\r?\n> I've removed FWs with stripped notches before by
\r?\n> removing the outer
\r?\n> body and clamping the inner FW body in a bench vice, which
\r?\n> of course
\r?\n> destroys the FW. I'd be willing to sacrifice the FW,
\r?\n> but I don't think
\r?\n> this would help, as the bench vice isn't working with
\r?\n> the remover
\r?\n> clamped in it, so I think tearing down the FW might only
\r?\n> make things worse.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Regards,
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Jerry Moos
\r?\n> Big Spring, Texas, USA