Vintage Fuji Teardown

This is going to be a long post. I did a complete restoration of a nice old Fuji Sports 12, and I can show you a bolt by bolt teardown to its bare frame. I prefer to completely disassemble a very old bike before putting it to serious use. This way I can inspect every part and know everything was properly assembled when I go for a long ride. Here's the bike:

It has dry rotted tires, misadjusted brakes, and possibly several hidden problems so let's get started. First I removed the seatpost:

After this I like to remove the handlebars and stem, so first I disconnected the brake cables:

Next I loosened the clamp that holds the shifters to the handlebars. This is just a large philips screw (a #2 if I remember correctly):

Now I can loosen the stem bolt and remove the bars:

I had to smack the bolt down with a hammer before the stem would move freely. After that I just had to remove the 3 little chrome clamps that hold the rear brake cable to the frame, and then the handlebars came right off:

Next I wanted to remove the cranks and bottom bracket. First I removed the pedals:

Then I unscrewed the dustcaps covering the crank bolts (one of the rare times a penny can be useful for anything...):

Now I can remove the crank bolts:

These came out pretty easily, but sometimes they can be really stuck in there. Anyway it's time to use the crank puller. I showed the Park Tool version in an earlier post, so this time I wanted to show the generic one. First you need to unscrew the part the pushes into the bottom bracket spindle, then thread the puller into the crank. Make sure it's fully engaged:

Now you can tighten the piece you originally unscrewed until the crank pops off:

With the cranks off you can remove the bottom bracket. First unscrew the lockring on the left side:

Now you can remove the adjustable cup. There are lots of different styles of these. This particular one has 2 large slots for a big flat bladed screwdriver to fit. I used a hammer and punch to get it started:

Once the left side cup is out you can slide out the spindle. The last step is to remove the right side cup. Remember this one is reverse threaded on most frames:

This one came out extremely easily, and it might even have loosened up on its own had I not bothered to remove it. With the cranks and bottom bracket gone I decided to remove the fork next. First I had to disassemble the headset:

 

 If your bike has one of these brackets for the brake cable it's a good idea to hold it while unscrewing the top locknut to prevent damage to the threads on the fork. With the locknut off there was an additional lockring underneath the bracket:

I guess this is an extra measure to keep the headset from coming loose. With the lockring unscrewed the bearing race can be unscrewed by hand, and the fork will then slide right out:

Next I removed the front wheel and the brake from the fork:

After that I decided to remove the rear derailleur to clean and oil the moving parts. First I had to remove the rear wheel:

Next I unbolted the shift cable (8mm hex bolt):

Then the mounting bolt:

On most derailleurs you would have to break the chain, but this one has a split pulley cage so I could just unhook it from the tension pulley. Here is the frame as it currently sits:

Next I removed the parcel rack and the chain for a thorough cleaning:

 

Finally I removed the tires from the wheels. I also unscrewed the freewheel in order to repack the bearings:

I caught a few potential problems by completely disassembling the bike. The pedals were rather loose, the right side bottom bracket cup was way too loose, and the rear wheel bearings were way too tight. Also, by removing the fork and bottom bracket I can clean and regrease the bearings to greatly extend their service life. In my next post I will show you how I put this bike back together.