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How To Remove Your Freewheel!


thowmas

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This IS the way to remove your busted up freewheel from your pedal arm :)

You Need:

- A crowbar

- A gas camping stove

- A pickaxe

- An angle grinder

- A saucepan

- Some cold water

- A vice

- A hench guy with some big muscles

- A screwdriver

- Pliers

- A hammer

- Your crank arm with freewheel attatched

- A nice new freewheel to go back on!

How To!

so yeah, i discovered this method the other day when the acs freewheel on my t-pro broke and was completley stuck on so tight, so first things first, take the crank arm off your bike with the freewheel on...and also take off the pedal.

using a screwdriver and hammer (maybe needed), take off the cover on the back of the freewheel ....completley unscrew it. now the cog thing should just lift off, but u need something to catch all those ball bearings!! so act quick!

take everything off the freewheel that you can, so you're just left with 2 parts on your crank arm: the crank arm itself, and the centre core bit of the freewheel.

ok fun stuff now...you can see on the freewheel part that there is some flat recessed bits on it (4 of them around the freewheel), above the threads. so to get a better grip in the vice, you take an angle grinder :D and clamp the freewheel in a vice. you grind away 2 opposite flat recessed bits, until you end up with 2 good flat edges on either side of the freewheel... where some goggles kids, safety first and all that

go check the freewheel now fits nicely in the vice...if it doesnt, do some more grindage till it does

now...get the saucepan, fill it with some cold water.

get your gas camping stove, light it and set it to MAX!!!!

Grab hold of the pliers and hold the end of the crank arm (pedal end), then hold the freewheel over the stove for a few mins. (the pliers are so you dont burn the crap out of your hands....)

then whack it straight in to the cold water...do this like a few times, then the last time heat the hell out of it...yeah watch out it'll be bloody hot, and so easy does it, go clamp it in the vice so that the flat grinded bits are touching the plates on the vice.

now get either the pickaxe or the crowbar, whicherver tool you prefer and go whack the vice arm to tighten it up reallll good.

now take the crowbar (this seemed the best tool after trying a few times)...and smack the pedal arm reallly really hard (anti-clockwise)...if the thing just slips out of the vice, just whack it back in again....and just keep hitting it with the crowbar. then eventually it will undo and the freewheel will come undone and its the biggest feeling of acheivement all year.

then grease up the threads, and screw on the nice new freewheel. job done

well thats the tried and tested method of removing a freewheel kids.

have fun

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Just to let you know, i'm available 20-30 quid an hour and 30 quid call out fee

haha ok thanks for the info mate...you might get a few gays replying back to you now youve said that! haha

and yeah in reply to the other post, i did try a freewheel tool...i tried literally everything, it was just jammed on so hard, so what i said was the only thing that could do the job!

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Easier method:

Clamp the freewheel tool in place using a long bolt, and a big washer. - Won't slip now. ;)

If the tool has a wrench fitting, get something like a 24" breaker bar, and just hang off it (cranks clmaped in vice/whatever)

If the tool needs a spanner, add the spanner, then find some wide tube to use for more leverage, or try and add the long bar.

That's how we done it at work to my one anyway... :ermm:

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Easier method:

Clamp the freewheel tool in place using a long bolt, and a big washer. - Won't slip now. ;)

If the tool has a wrench fitting, get something like a 24" breaker bar, and just hang off it (cranks clmaped in vice/whatever)

If the tool needs a spanner, add the spanner, then find some wide tube to use for more leverage, or try and add the long bar.

That's how we done it at work to my one anyway... :ermm:

why not do it properly and clamp the freewheel tool into the vice and heat the freewheel for a bowt 5 mins with a blow torch then hit the crank arm with a club hammer it should just spin off (Y) ive had to do this with 4 freewheels in the past3 weeks (N) give it ago so much easier ;) ps youve got the first bit right though bolt the tool through the tapper so that it doesnt slip

Edited by I-LUV-TRIALS
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Silly boys :rolleyes: All you need to do is clamp the freewheel tool on with a bolt, put the freewheel tool in the vise and put a long bit of tubing on the crank arm for leverage.

mine wouldnt budge at all even usin a scapholding pole for leverage i think i spelt it wrong dont have a go my spell checker aint working lol

Edited by I-LUV-TRIALS
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I haven't read any of that, but there are definitely easier ways. I've had fun times with cheap freewheels on bmx bikes when I was wrenching.

step 1: put the freewheel in a big vice

step 2: crush the said freewheel in the vice, until you see bearings shoot out all over the place and the freewheel becomes oval

step 3: unscrew crank/wheel. use a pipe for you crank if you have to.

Easy and fun

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yeah the old pole trick is always good, but when u dont have a pole about that fits over the crank arm...or you dont have a freewheel tool....like i didnt... then the angle grinder way is probably the most fun/dangerous...

haha i might post up a pic of my angle grinded freewheel of where this this whole thing came from

but yeah...halfords couldnt even remove my god damn freewheel so if they cant, then only an angle grinder and a crow bar can!! or maybe not....

poof :P

angle grinder + new freewheel (Y)

edit::

unless you've got an eno - in which case i recommend the previous method

haha yeah mate, i wudnt recommend angle grindage on an eno ;)

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