Freewheel Hub Bearings

I took some pictures of the freewheel hub on one of my older bikes. I previously did a tutorial on servicing a cassette hub's bearings here, but I thought this could be useful too. First you need to remove the freewheel:

It's a good idea to brace the tool with the axle nut or quick release while you break the freewheel loose, they can be pretty stuck. Anyway once the freewheel is off (more info on removing them here), you can loosen one of the locknuts while holding the axle cone steady with a cone wrench:

Many times on a freewheel hub you can just used two regular wrenches on the drive side, since the locknut and cone are sometimes spaced far enough apart to fit a standard wrench on the cone. With the locknut and spacers out of the way you can unscrew the cone:

Then slide out the axle and remove the bearings:

And clean them well:

I like to use mineral spirits, but it's pretty nasty on your bare hands. Now pack the cups with grease and place each ball bearing back inside. There are usually 9 on each side.

Slide the axle back in place and screw the cone back on:

Then replace any spacers and the locknut:

On this particular hub there are 2 locknuts on the right hand side, so I tightened the inner one against the cone first:

 Then the outer locknut against the inner one:

The last step is to adjust the bearings to make sure the wheel doesn't have play and turns easily. For solid axles you adjust the bearings for no play in the axle, and minimal drag as you turn it (slight drag is preferable to having play here). For hollow axles with quick release skewers you want a very slight, almost imperceptible amount of play because the skewer will tighten the bearings a little bit more.