Freewheel Removal Without A Special Tool

I previously wrote a post about destructive freewheel removal, but I want to revisit that procedure with better photos. Here I have an old Shimano 333 freewheel with their old style spline pattern. Removal tools for these freewheels are not widely available, so I disassembled the freewheel in order to remove it. First I removed the front bearing race with a hammer and punch. It is reverse threaded, so I had to rotate it clockwise: With the race removed, you can see lots of ball bearings inside. If you're careful then only half of them will end up spilling over your floor.

 Now I could pull the sprocket cluster straight off the freewheel body:

 Next I slid the pawls out of their retaining springs before clamping the freewheel core in a bench vise. 

Turning the rim counterclockwise allowed me to unscrew the freewheel core. Now I could reassemble the freewheel. I managed to keep the bearings in the sprocket cluster from falling out in order to save some time.

 After sliding the pawls back into their grooves, I used bearing grease to hold the 10 million ball bearings in place:

Here is the tricky part. It's hard to install the freewheel core back into the sprocket cluster when the pawls are sticking out. I push the two halves together at an angle so that one pawl is inside the sprocket cluster to start with. Then I push the other pawl in with a screwdriver while pressing the pieces together.

Once the two halves are joined together I added some motor oil to thin out the grease:

Finally I screwed the front bearing race back on with the hammer and punch in a counterclockwise motion:

Sticky Shift Cables

I noticed that the shifting on my Fuji was pretty sluggish today.  Last year I made the mistake of using wheel bearing grease to lubricate the rear derailleur cable. I normally use motor oil and reapply it every few years, and I never had problems with oil. However, the grease that I put on the cable must have gotten thicker while sitting over winter because there was a lot of resistance.  Anyway, time to fix my mistake.

First unscrew the cable pinch bolt:

 

 

Next pull the cable out of the derailleur and cable housing:

If you are putting a new shift cable on your road bike, then this is where you can pull it out of the shift lever:

 

I didn't need to change this cable, however. I just needed to slide the inner wire out of the housings so I could clean off the grease and apply fresh oil:

 

After threading the inner wire back through the cable housings, I secured it to the derailleur's pinch bolt and used my fancy crimp pliers to add an end ferrule:

The last step is to adjust the indexed shifting, since I had to unbolt the cable from the derailleur.  I like to shift the chain onto the second largest cassette sprocket, then turn the barrel adjuster on the derailleur until the guide pulley is centered under the sprocket:

Turning the barrel adjuster clockwise will move the derailleur slightly to the right. Turning the adjuster counterclockwise will move the derailleur slightly to the left.

Moral of this story - don't use grease for shift cables.