I don't think it's been dropped/crashed. Probably not been used for about 3 weeks and now if he stops pedalling the chain seems to catch. Is this the freehub sticking?
Why is my kid's bike no longer free-wheeling?
byu/Not__magnificent inbikewrench
by Not__magnificent
8 Comments
I’m no mechanic but it seems like there are some stuck pawls in your hub. I wouldn’t know how to fix that other than a wheel rebuild, not sure if you can get to anything serviceable inside it.
You can trickle some oil into the font of the freewheel mechanism to unstick it, this may not last a long time and it will thin out the existing grease in the bearings so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This video shows how to add oil:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugUDoyxJhmo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugUDoyxJhmo)
You may have a problem with the hub but most likely it’s the plastic spoke guard catching on the cassette.
The problem with free Wheels is, they have these little paws inside. Sometimes they get messed up. They can get overextended and lock it up. You could probably pull it off and rebuild it. But it’s probably just easier to buy a new free will cassette. They’re probably pretty cheap on Amazon. You’re probably going to need to buy the cassette too old that you’ll need to take the Free Will off as well
Yes, freewheel/freehub sticking. If it’s a freewheel, with the wheel off, dribbling a little light oil inside might help.
if the inner mech is hit too much with solvent while cleaning, you may have washed out the lube, and then the inner mech might be rusting and dying inside. Dried up.
that’s the bad news, good news is freewheels are cheap to replace.
Try removing the plastic guard, they cause that quite often.
Hit that fw with pb blaster or wd40, should loosen her right up