Cleaning up some old neglected bikes and wondering if I can get this apart to clean and re lube the pawls?
by booradleysghost
Cleaning up some old neglected bikes and wondering if I can get this apart to clean and re lube the pawls?
by booradleysghost
5 Comments
I suspect it can in theory but I don’t believe it’s designed as a user serviceable component. Is there an issue with it?
AFAIK it’s not something a bike shop would tackle, we never did in my bike mechanic days.
Probably but not really worth the time or effort. You need to remove the dust seal for the axle bearings on the drive side to get a better idea of how to separate the freehub body to get access to the pawls. Depending on the shape you may have to by a specialized tool or try to fabricate one yourself to do this. If you can find the exact model number for the freehub body, you can take a look at [si.shimano.com](http://si.shimano.com) and see if there are instructions or tool recommendations.
It can be serviced.
Here’s the video for the full breakdown:
https://youtu.be/X9gIEG1db0s
If it’s working decently I probably wouldn’t bother. If it’s not working decently it’s probably cheap enough that I still wouldn’t bother. If you want a learning experience go for it I guess?
I’ve done it a few times, there are a bunch of tiny loose bearings in there that are a pita.
You can pry out that outer dust seal and flush it, then spay some lube through it instead.
You’ll want to blow out the excess lube so it doesn’t contaminate the bearing grease later.
This process will likely destroy that dust seal so you’ll probably want a replacement on hand.