Shimano 600 freewheel body problems

[shmule05]

My freewheel body occasionally has problems with not spinning when I coast downhill.

When I went to the bike shop they said there is no way to replace the freewheel body on these old style hubs. He said to get the cassette off you need two chainwhips but once you have the cassette off there is nothing you can do about fixing the free wheel body.

Is this true? I'm thinking there must be a way to get it working correctly again. Doing a quick internet and ebay search it seems like getting a new freewheel body for this old shimano 600 rear wheel is impossible.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

[cyclerUK]

If it is a freehub body then the bike shop man is correct.
You could try squirting some WD40 into it to see if that helps and then some thin oil after.
(but difficult to do!)
Depending on your gear change levers you could fit a 7 speed (or 8) hub.
This may involve widening the frame dropout spacing from 126 to 130mm for the new hub.?

The old 600 cassette system is obsolete now and you will be lucky to find any spares at all.

I have a bike with more modern 600 (Ultegra) stuff but that is 8 speed indexing.

[Joe_W]

Hm. If it is really a Shimano freehub you can probably replace the freehub body. I'd give it a try, you have nothing to loose, hub is broken anyway, isn't it? You might even get a freehub body from the scrap bin at a LBS.

[Bill]

If you feel like removing the cassette yourself here is how...
http://forums.bikeride.com/thread-1230.html.

Ok here is something you maybe able to try. After you remove the cassette you can always try flushing it out with solvent while it is still attached to the wheel, use this as a last resort! After that there is this tool called a freehub buddy , can buy here http://www.morningstartools.com/freehub_buddy1.html . Or something similar to the tool. Allows you to flush it out and as well re-lube it.

By the way those are an ancient Chinese Manufacturer "Secret" to remove.

[shmule05]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm also thinking about just getting a rear wheel off of ebay.

I saw one (shimano ultegra with mach 1 rims) for 70$. Do people think it's worth that price?

[Joe_W]

Depends on the condition. If it is new and well built it should be ok. Ultegra rear hubs are not inexpensive, they are around 60€ (online shop), so I couldn't build one for that price (cheap rim: 20€, spokes 16€), which already sums up to more than 100 USD.

[pavillani]

hey mate,
if you are talking about a cluster style freewheel then all these people are wrong. you can remover the top part of the freewheel with a red pin spanner from park tools (It is a bottom bracket tool but works for freewheels - make sure you get the red one if you do as it is different from the green).
be careful though as inside that top plate thing there are all the bearings and whatnot which may need cleaning/regreasing/replacing.
good luck with it all.

[Bill]

Oh you are talking about this method??? ....
http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=46

[pavillani]

Yeah, that's exact what I was talking about. You obviously don't have to take the whole thing off the wheel entirely but at least when it has been opened up it will be much easier to tell if it just needs cleaning or whether there is something structurally wrong with it. Also I have found that just being careful and patient makes it much easier to put these bad boys back together

[cyclerUK]

We still don't know if it's a "freewheel" or "freehub"?
Shmule05 says freewheel whereas the bike shop say cassette/freehub!

If it is a "freewheel" then replacements are available. Maybe not 600 models but others are.

[trevgbb]

This is a dangerous fault, the chain can wrap up and lock the wheel, throwing you off the bike, if you must ride the bike, remember to keep the pedals turning at all times, but you really need to get it replaced soonest.
If it's a freewheel, it will look like pavillani's pic, these can be serviced if thats how you want to spend your life, it will take hours, there are lots of 1/8" ball bearings plus the pawls and the pawl retaining spring inside, if it's only dirt causing the problem you can clean it out and re-assemble,( you need to bed the balls in grease, there are 2 rows of them and you will almost certainly have to several go'es before you get them all lined up) but if the edge of the pawls are chipped, you won't be able to repair them.

You don't really need a special tool, a small punch tapped around with a hammer has always worked for me, care is needed or everything falls apart.

If it's a cassette freehub, then the shop is probably right, new wheel and gear block, make sure you stick to the same gearing or you will have to start changing other things too.

If it's 7 gears it's probably a freewheel, if it's 8 or more, probably a freehub.