Tag Archives: bicycle restoration

Quando/Quanta Hubs Long Term Update

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Quando/Quanta hubs

Last week, while getting ready to climb a steep section of my route home, I vigorously shifted into my lowest gear while riding my 1987 Panasonic MC 7500 winter bike.  That resulted in my chain over-shifting and falling into the spokes.  Uh oh!  It took about 15 minutes for me to dislodge the chain and ride home, after turning the bike upside down for diagnosis and repair.  I had to remove my Paul’s chain keeper in order move the chain, as it had gotten wedged between the chain keeper and chain ring.  Still, I wasn’t worried because I stopped the bike the minute this occurred, and didn’t expect that I had done much damage.

I had built this wheelset about a year and a half ago using Quando cartridge bearing hubs, laced to SunRims CR18 rims. For the few weeks preceding this mishap, I had been hearing a clunking noise in the rear of the bike, occurring while pedaling and coasting, but louder when riding at speed.  It took a while for me to clue in to what the noise might mean.  At first, I thought it was the saddle rails or seat post, because I only heard it when working hard at accelerating. But then I began hearing it while coasting.  Then I thought it was the replacement freewheel I was using – perhaps the freewheel cover plate was coming loose and the body was clunking around.  Bicycle noises can be maddening to diagnose!

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Spoke damage.

When I finally had time to get the bike into the shop stand, I was saddened to see that the chain had damaged all the drive side spokes in my little mishap.  Doh!  Good thing I checked.  So, I proceeded to disassemble the wheel, all the while wondering whether I had the right length replacement spokes (that’s why you always buy extras…), and questioning whether I was up to a wheel building experience on this nice sunny afternoon.

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Once I had the spokes out, which I removed very slowly and methodically (spokes under tension are dangerous projectiles), I examined the hub body.  It looked pretty good.  Okay, let’s build the wheel again with some new spokes.  Fortunately, I had 9 spokes on hand of the exact length needed.  In a sort of thoughtless way I began turning the hub axle, perhaps in an attempt to delay the inevitable.  That’s when I heard a strange grinding/clicking sound.  I held the hub close to my ears to listen further.  Finally, the sound stopped, but was replaced by a very tight spot when turning the axle of the hub.  Very tight.  Not normal!  The source of the clunking was now illuminated.  But, what to do?

I could attempt to diagnose the cartridge bearings, or I could try to find the right rear hub with 126mm rear spacing (mission impossible?).  The latter turned out to be the best course of action.  Velo Orange sells a 126mm rear hub with freewheel threads and 36 holes – just what I needed.  Mission accomplished.

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Meanwhile, I removed the dust covers on the Quando hubs.  Perhaps with this winter’s especially rainy and muddy rides, bad stuff had made its way into the cartridge bearings and could be simply cleaned out.

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No such luck.  The bearing grease (which has been removed in the above photos), was pristine.  Undaunted, I decided to clean the bearings and re-grease them, to see if by some chance that would change the hub’s tight spot (which was illogical of course).

The bearings on these Quando hubs are either bad, or not properly adjusted, or the races and cups in the hubs are damaged.  Cartridge bearings do not work in the same way as cup and cone style bearings.  The latter’s adjustment is achieved by the correct position of the cone against the cup, something most experienced mechanics can do easily.

Cartridge bearings are engineered differently.  The preload adjustment is done by the factory when the bearings are pressed into the hub.  If it is wrong, correcting it can be a problem.  A cartridge bearing hub’s races can also be damaged by improper installation (or removal).

While it may be possible to have these hubs diagnosed and repaired by a mechanic with the right equipment, the cost to do so is not justified here (throwaway technology strikes again).  Now, I will try to look forward to rebuilding the rear wheel with my new VO hub, when it arrives.  The front hub spins just fine and has no issues, for now.  But, given this experience, I will plan to monitor it in the future.

Overhauling a Freewheel, Part II

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When I left off from my last post, I was midway in the process of overhauling an early 80’s Shimano freewheel.  I was having trouble getting the freewheel cogs seated over the freewheel body, after cleaning and reinstalling the lower set of bearings at the base of the freewheel body.  The process of mounting the cog body over the freewheel body involves turning the cogs counter clockwise, while somehow not dislodging the lower bearings, but every time I tried it I failed because I couldn’t see the bearings, as I was using the “top down” method.

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Maillard freewheel body with rubber band holding the pawls in place.

So, I took a break and did some reading and experimenting with other freewheels.  Older freewheels have pawls held in place only by gravity, which is fine if the freewheel body when disassembled is right side up.  But, what I read was that the best way to get the cogs back on is to turn the freewheel body upside down first, then turn the cog body counter clockwise over the base of the freewheel.  However, the only way to keep the pawls from falling out is to secure them with a rubber band, attached with a string. This was the method described by Sheldon Brown.  When you flip the freewheel body upside down after installing it loosely on a wheel, you hope that you can get the string, rubber band, pawls and bearings to all end up in their rightful positions while maneuvering the cog body into the bearings.  I tried this as a “dry run” – sans bearings – a few times on the Maillard freewheel that I had disassembled, and was never able to get the string to pull the rubber band out, and this was without having any bearings to worry about.

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Shimano freewheel with top set of bearings installed, after applying a bead of grease.

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Spacers going back in over the top bearings.

But, the Shimano’s pawls were held in place with a clip, and I realized that I could just turn the body upside down, position the cogs, and slowly turn them counter clockwise as I gently seated them over the bearings.  Having the freewheel body upside down for this step allowed me to be sure that all the bearings stayed in place during the process.  I did this while the body was attached to the wheel.  After that it was easy to apply a bead of grease to the upper cup of the freewheel body, install the bearings, place the spacers, and then re-thread the cover plate BACKWARDS (because it is reverse threaded).  Then, by taking a chain whip to the cogs, you can tighten the cover plate back down with your pin spanner.  Some experts suggest applying thread locker to the cover plate, but I instead used a bit of grease.

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Cover plate back on.

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Pin spanner and chain whip, to tighten the cover plate.

I removed the freewheel from the wheel, spun it, and was satisfied with the result. Voila – mission accomplished.

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Suntour Perfect 5 speed freewheel

Meanwhile, I recently purchased a used Suntour Perfect freewheel on eBay that I wanted to have on hand because of its useful wide gear range.  Unfortunately, this freewheel was shipped in a small box surrounded by “popcorn” – that horrible stuff which clings to everything – and in this case imbedded its tiny carcinogenic particles into every possible opening of the freewheel during the shipping process.  While described as being in “great condition” by the seller, I found that this Suntour freewheel was totally dry and did not spin freely.  So, it became another candidate for an overhaul.  As you can see from the above photo, the cover plate is easily accessible, with normal sized holes which my Park pin spanner fit perfectly.

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Suntour spacers

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Suntour pawls – held in place with a clip

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Suntour freewheel body, beautifully machined

As I was removing the cover plate, once the body was off the wheel, I had a small mishap when I accidentally bumped the body, and the bearings went flying around my shop. Fortunately, with my magnet in hand, I believe I recovered all of them.  It’s important to have all of the bearings if only for the purpose of counting them, top and bottom, even if you aren’t going to re-use them.  And, this venture definitely gives new meaning to the phrase “losing one’s bearings.”

I noticed right away, as I observed the Suntour’s freewheel body and cogs, how nicely engineered these are compared to the Shimano freewheel.  The Suntour’s freewheel body has a wider base and a larger cup, which makes installing the bearings much easier.  It has one pawl per side, held in place with clips.  The top spacer has lock rings, another nice feature. However, you can see from the photo above that there is some wear on the pawls, which I think was caused by the complete lack of lubrication over the life of this freewheel.  The pawls seemed robust enough to be re-used, so I proceeded to the next step.

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Lower bearings installed in a bead of grease, a small bit of grease added to each pawl.

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Top bearings installed, ready for spacers and cover plate.

I was able to easily install the cog body over the freewheel body by using the “upside down method”, and from there it took no time at all to apply a bead of grease to the top cup, install the bearings and spacers, and secure the cover plate.  This overhauled Suntour Perfect freewheel now spins beautifully, with that pleasing tick-tick sound that Suntour freewheels emit.

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Cyclo 4 speed freewheel

So, I kept going. I wanted to overhaul this Cyclo freewheel which, even after lubrication, was fairly unresponsive.  I believe it dates to the 60’s or 70’s.  It is French threaded, but accepts a Suntour two prong removal tool.  While it was fairly easy to get the cover plate loose, the tedious process to unscrew it all the way made me think that the cover plate had been cross threaded, and I worried about getting it back on again.

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Cyclo freewheel pawls part of cog body

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Notches in freewheel body, instead of cog body

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Pawls which fell out on disassembly

When I took the Cyclo freewheel apart, I was intrigued to see that its pawls are part of the cog body, and not the freewheel body, which instead houses the notches which allow for the freewheel to lock under forward motion.  And, the pawls fell out of the body immediately, as they are not held in place by any kind of clip.  So, this Cyclo will require a different method for getting the pawls to stay in place while mounting them over the freewheel body. And now I am getting another headache.

One thing I learned from this process is that nicely engineered freewheels are easy to overhaul as long as the pawls are clipped into the body (but probably almost never need to be overhauled).  In fact, the only procedure you may ever need to do, aside from routine lubrication, is to remove the cover plate to add or remove a spacer.  If the freewheel is too tightly adjusted, you add a spacer, and if it’s too loose you remove a spacer.  Poorly engineered (and badly adjusted) newer freewheels are time consuming to overhaul, if you are even able to do it, as the cover plates on some freewheels are difficult or impossible to remove.  Meanwhile, my 7 speed Suntour Winner freewheel, which was the impetus for this undertaking, is now working better.  I tightened the cover plate, lubricated it with a bit heavier oil, and now it is working fine, without the need for an overhaul.

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Suntour Winner 7 speed freewheel

It’s Always Something

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F. Fiol rear rack

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F. Fiol front rack

Last Thanksgiving, in pre-holiday mode, I got on my 1980 Meral and rode to my local grocery store to stock up on a few supplies needed for our holiday dinner. One of the nice things about being a vegetarian means not carting around a 20 lb turkey.  However, I did discover that veggies can also be quite heavy.  When I loaded them into the panniers I had thrown over these modest F. Fiol front and rear racks (which mount only to the fenders and not to the frame), something bad happened.  The bike went nowhere.  The rear rack sunk down into the fender, and moved the wheel out of its dropout. I had to dismount and carry the bike to a sidewalk where I could troubleshoot the problem.  Unfortunately, the rear fender had altered its position so significantly that I could not ascend back home. I had to call for help.

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Blackburn rack

Once I had the Meral back at my shop, it became clear that I needed to replace the F. Fiol rear rack with something more robust.  Racks are very tricky, as most mechanics know, and it can be challenging to find the right rack to work with your bike to provide the utility you need.

I eyeballed a number of racks that I had on hand, and decided to go with this Blackburn rack which I had previously taken off a 1980’s Miyata touring bike.  It’s very strong and has a number of useful features.

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Nitto clamps

The rack fit perfectly to the frame, and was level without any modifications needed.  I used P-clamps to mount the rack stays to the seat stays (because this frame has no rack mounts).  I used these Nitto clamps, pictured above, which were leftover from another project.  These clamps are very robust, and protect the frame’s paint.  Even so, I taped the frame underneath the clamps with electricians tape, just in case.  Because…things can go wrong.

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Broken seat post bolt, removal slots created with Dremel

As I was putting the frame into the work stand, I managed to break the seatpost bolt head right off.  That might be one indication that I’ve put this frame in the shop stand too many times.  The ensuing panic finally resulted in relief when I took my Dremel and cut screwdriver slots into each side of the remaining bolt.  It took quite a while to rock the bolt in and out using a screwdriver and vise grips, but I finally got it free.   Yeehaw!

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Brake hangers – Surly and Problem Solvers.

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New seatpost bolt.

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Smooshed Mafac hanger.

I had contemplated changing my “smooshed” Mafac rear brake hanger with a different application.  Unfortunately, nothing else was suitable.  It is challenging to mount a rear hanger on a smaller frame.  The Surly hangers would have been perfect, except they were too long and didn’t allow for the requisite 20 mm of clearance above the Mafac straddle cable.  And, the Problem Solvers hangers were too thick at the seatpost mounting ring, so could not be used with the Meral seat post clamp.  (Problem Solvers is great resource and worth checking out.)  Fortunately, the Mafac hanger works just fine.

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Beautiful new T.A. 44-28 chainrings

Now that the bike was in the shop stand, it was time to think of other modifications that I had been contemplating for this bike.  I had been using a T.A. triple crankset with 48-40-28 rings.  The big ring had a massive wobble that I had corrected a few times by smashing it between two planks in my vise.

I decided that it was time to go with a smaller big ring, and convert the crankset to a double.  T. A. cranks, with their tiny bolt circle diameter should only be used with smaller chainrings, because the small diameter bolt circle can cause the big ring to flex under load.  So I sourced these beautiful new rings – a 44 and a 28, and converted the drive to a double.

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Shimano ac-7speed cassette – 11-28

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Acceptable chain line

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Simplex Super LJ front derailleur

Changing out the front rings meant an evaluation of the rear cassette.  I decided to use a 7 speed Shimano 11-28 cassette, to help adjust the resulting chain line.  The Simplex Super LJ is very happy with this double chain ring set up, and was designed to shift rings with large teeth differences.  Now, we’ll see how this works out on the road.