Here’s a step by step disassembly guide for the now very popular Freecoaster hub(Freemix style). Time to crack out the spanners and grease and let Mr Hankey show you how!
Generally these hubs do not need a lot of maintenance, however opening it up every couple of months for a clean, inspection and rebuild is a good idea. Use plenty of grease, keep it tight and it will serve you well for a very long time.
Tools Needed for the job:
.1 Grease
.2 Rag/ Cloth
.3 6mm Allen Key
.4 Plastic, rubber or wooden Mallet
.5 Adjustable wrench or a 24mm Spanner to be exact
.6 Bench vice. Not totally necessary, makes the job a helluva lot easier
Top Tips yo!
.1 Do not use a steel hammer
.2 Do not wash bearings, hub part or headset parts with soap or chemicals (i.e Turps, spirits, Moms wash-up liquid…) Reason being that a slight residue is left behind, this breaks the grease down in your bearings….turns your grease to liquid, that is bad news.
.3 Don’t over tighten stuff
.4 Vaseline is NOT a grease
.5 Dial 911. Not really, but you can call me if you get stuck. I also drink lots of Coffee #hint
Begin by locking the allen key in the bench vice and perching the Non-drive side end of the axle on it.
Loosen and then remove the lock nut and tapered washer. Unscrew the driver and pull it out slowly.
Have your mallet handy, knock the drive side end of the axle gently but firmly. It shouldn’t need alot of force. Be sure to have the other end of the axle secured so that it doesn’t go flying. Notice how I hold it in the above photo.
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This is where it gets tricky. Keep all the small parts safe after you have cleaned them. *Read the Tips on the top of this post about cleaning with chemicals.
Take note of the order of the spacers and washers.
Check the bearings in the driver, they are the smallest and will likely need to be replaced at some stage. We have a handy post here that describes the sizes and types of bearings that your bike uses. Check it out.
After you have cleaned and polished all the bits; apply a liberal amount of grease. Automotive wheel bearing grease works fine for us. It’s usually a yellowish tan, sometimes white-ish color. It’s advisable not to mix different types of grease used on your bike. Some grease’s are soap based and others mineral. These types don’t always mix well…may cause damage to your sealed bearings. Clean as you go.
Lock shit down. But don’t over tighten.
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Slide the clutch back onto the axle perching it onto the spring-loaded nipples.
Slide him back into the hub shell, but do not knock the axle/bearing into place yet! What works best is; firstly slide the Driver into the big bearing, you should be able to screw the driver into the clutch. This then holds the axle into place as you knock the non-drive side through. Make sense?
At this point, as mentioned above, push the driver into the big bearing, screw it into the clutch (the clutch is already inside the hub on the axle, then knock the axle back into place.
Your’e about good to go now. Add pegs, hub guard, mistletoe…
Related Posts:
— Female Axle Conversion
— Basic Freecoaster stuntery with AT
— SKABANGA x LOOT mixtape!
Updated August 2019
