Freewheel removal U plus 2 trailer

[tippo12]

I have acquired an old (pre Pashley, pre Brilliant bikes) Cresswell u plus 2 trailer, and am hoping to renovate it for my grandkids, step one is to get it powder coated, after disassembly.
The Problem.
I am unable to remove the freewheel, a Shimano 6 speed block, as their is insufficient clearance from the trike rear frame to get a freewheel removal tool (not even an NBT2) onto the block.
The block appears to be mounted onto an alloy carrier which has 32mm flats and I presume the carrier is bolted to the axle, but unable so see how or get a tool inside the block at all.
The driven wheel hub shell is simply "swaged" onto the long driven axle which looks like a steel bar, and has no flats or way to prevent axle rotation at either end.
I phoned Pashley but they simply told me to use a chain whip and a 32mm spanner, but that can only tighten the block on to the carrier/axle?????

Anyone got experience of how to remove the block so I can get the frame shotted?

[Valbrona]

Picture would be good.

[rjb]

I am not familiar with your trike but it sounds like you have a similar arrangement to a trike conversion that I have. The freewheel is mounted on an alloy carrier as shown. The carrier has a hexagon hollow which attaches to the drive shaft and is retained by a bolt. To remove the freewheel you may need to release the axle from the frame and move it to the left to give room to either remove the carrier retaining bolt or to insert a freewheel remover. If you release the carrier with the freewheel you will have to fit it to a hexaganol bar to remove the freewheel. Holding the carrier in a bench vise across the 32mm flats will not be an option as there will not be sufficient purchase and the carrier will slip out of the jaws. You may need to use the existing left hand axle to hold the carrier while removing the freewheel. Best of luck.

[merseymouth]

Hi there, Having seen a photo of such a contraption I would lay odds that it uses an adaptor to carry the block, much in the way that Higgins trikes do. So one needs to extract the unit from the axle cage. With that out one needs to hold the adaptor to use the block tool. Higgins used flats 36mm or 37mm across. The 36mm is standard bottom bracket fixed cup size, the 37mm Bayliss Wiley cup size. With a Tacx wrench in place I hold it in place with a bolt and nut, which hold in place a large washer to stop the wrench slipping off. My "Washer" is an 8oz weight from a set of scales, with a hole drilled through it. This doubles as a slide hammer for shaft extraction on journal bearing axles. Held thus I use a long torque wrench on the Block tool to shift it. Works for me. TTFN MM

[John1054]

Anyone help me with how to remove a freewheel from a Cresswell uplus2, tandem trike trailer as I want to have the frame shotted and powder coated.
On the drive (centre) of the axle there is an alloy carrier with 32mm across flats for a spanner, which a six speed shimano freewheel is mounted on.
There are no other flats or means to gain purchase on the axle or wheel hub end or the drive side end of the axle.
The non dive side frame of the trike is about 4mm from the outer edge of the freewheel block and prevents ANY tool getting on to the freewheel in the normal way in order to remove the block.
I am at a loss - anyone experience of these?

[rjb]

Bump

Cresswell ...

Tippo, I am a new member and I can't message you yet. May I ask a different question to you?

Years ago you asked about removing a Cresswell Uplus2 freewheel on this forum. Did you manage to do it, and if so how? I didn't see an answer.

I'm trying to do the same thing as you did, & it's stumped me too.

Thanks.

[Jdsk]

NB dates.

What's the current question, please?

Jonathan

[rjb]

Home asked the question today but in the current thread running about waxing your chain. I have just bumped it into the old thread covering the query.

[Jdsk]

Thanks.

(My grandchildren ride to school on a Pashley version.)

Jonathan

[home]

Home asked the question today but in the current thread running about waxing your chain. I have just bumped it into the old thread covering the query.

Much appreciated. I didn't know how the forum (or mods) worked. Yes, I couldn't private message the original poster to get his attention so posted where he had been more recently.

I'll take some photos to document this as this forum is the best source of information on them, and I am sure many others will be having the same problem ... but I have not worked it out how! Speaking to Tippo, there also appear to variations in different revisions of the trike.

There are two flats on the freewheel carrier that were useful in removing the wheel. However, there does not appear to be any flats at the other end of the axle to remove it. Perhaps it requires the 'two lock nuts' approach?

It's still a mystery to me as yet.

[rogerzilla]

You can get pretty much any freewheel off if you're not going to reuse it. Remove the cogs with chainwhips (the top two are usually screwed, the rest splined), remove the top cone by screwing it clockwise, and this frees everything except the main body. That will come off using a vice or large spanner on the pawl flats

[home]

You can get pretty much any freewheel off if you're not going to reuse it. Remove the cogs with chainwhips (the top two are usually screwed, the rest splined), remove the top cone by screwing it clockwise, and this frees everything except the main body. That will come off using a vice or large spanner on the pawl flats

Further complications arise from the way tricycle axles are configured. The problem is, no access to stick a remover in the end. Sure, a destructive manner might be possible (where there's an angle grinder, there's a way), but there's bound to be a proper way to try first.

From Tippo. It looks like this ...

Here's a complete one ...

[cycle tramp]

Looking at the photo I'm not even sure there's enough clearance to actually screw on a freewheel in that space. You tend to need space so that the freewheel is offered to the mounting thread as flat as possible, so you don't run the risk of cross threading.
This makes me wonder if the block on which the freewheel is mounted (in the photograph) is simply a big block of alloy and the drive shaft to the wheel is screwed into it.
Not sure from the photograph if that's actually a spanner flat on the freewheel mount or just a shadow. Any chance of another couple of photos?

[tatanab]

Further complications arise from the way tricycle axles are configured. The problem is, no access to stick a remover in the end. Sure, a destructive manner might be possible (where there's an angle grinder, there's a way), but there's bound to be a proper way to try first.

There is absolutely no point in trying to remove the freewheel in situ, or cut it apart either. The drive boss will still be in place on the shaft (the axle is whole assembly) which will prevent access for you to mount a new freewheel.

The drive boss will probably be secured to the shaft by one of two methods. It may have a hex drive and be fixed by a screw on the end of the shaft; or it may be on a thread on the shaft. Given that you say the wheel was screwed on I'd say the latter is likely, so your two nuts is the thing to try to loosen the drive boss. Having loosened the drive boss you will probably need to remove the shaft which might simply pull out with a little persuasion, or it might need something like a slide hammer to break the corrosion of years. Then the flats on the drive boss are gripped in a vice and the freewheel removed as usual. A big screw through the middle to hold the remover in place is useful.

By the way, if the wheel is screwed onto the shaft the thread is a big stress raiser and liable to break with the wheel flying off. Of course your machine will only have light use so may be ok.

[cycle tramp]

Further complications arise from the way tricycle axles are configured. The problem is, no access to stick a remover in the end. Sure, a destructive manner might be possible (where there's an angle grinder, there's a way), but there's bound to be a proper way to try first.

There is absolutely no point in trying to remove the freewheel in situ, or cut it apart either. The drive boss will still be in place on the shaft (the axle is whole assembly) which will prevent access for you to mount a new freewheel.

The drive boss will probably be secured to the shaft by one of two methods. It may have a hex drive and be fixed by a screw on the end of the shaft; or it may be on a thread on the shaft. Given that you say the wheel was screwed on I'd say the latter is likely, so your two nuts is the thing to try to loosen the drive boss. Having loosened the drive boss you will probably need to remove the shaft which might simply pull out with a little persuasion, or it might need something like a slide hammer to break the corrosion of years. Then the flats on the drive boss are gripped in a vice and the freewheel removed as usual. A big screw through the middle to hold the remover in place is useful.

By the way, if the wheel is screwed onto the shaft the thread is a big stress raiser and liable to break with the wheel flying off. Of course your machine will only have light use so may be ok.

If the driveshaft is simply screwed into the freewheel mount, and the freewheel mount can be unscrewed, and the drive shaft pulled outwards to provide clearance to remove the freewheel and freewheel mount, then would you need to remove the wheel from its drive shaft?