Wow, 12698 articles unread, I've been lax. oh well. Think of it as
time saved.
Today I set out to fix the main Huffy that had a bottom bracket
disintegration last December, that had been sitting in the garage
while I rode my backup Huffy. Still, it was pleasant weather,
there were no bugs, I had no pressing job-work task for a change,
and it would be nice to get back that 3mph that the nicer Huffy
gives me through its more aerodynamic riding position with the
flat bar ends below the seat and straight forward, so I set to work.
I had all the parts - it needed new BB everything : spindle, R&L cones
and races, R&L cranks (chainrings come on the R crank); since the
chainrings are being changed (they're pointy shark-tooth shaped anyway)
the chain has to change, and the freewheel has to change. I have those
too. And the rear derailleur is all rusted, so I have the spare out.
I figure an hour and a half.
Well, the R crank won't extract. It strips the threads on the crank
(not the tool, fortunately). L crank is okay, and that lets me pull
out the spindle on the right side, with R crank attached. Drop
in waste basket. Pound out old races, discard. The L race was in
several pieces and really bent up, cause of the disintegration.
Pound in new races, put R crank on new spindle, try to guess whether
bearing retainer back should face cone or race (decided cone),
assembled the rest, added L crank.
WTF? the big chainwheel is out past the front derailleur limit by
about one chainwheel. They lengthened the spindle!
Disassemble, compare with old spindle in waste basket. Yep, not the
same part. Apparently after 5 years Huffy forgets what part fits
what bicycle. Oh well, too late now. The old spindle doesn't
even have the same geometry so it couldn't swap even if it weren't
stuck to the R chainwheel.
At least the pound-in races & bearings are the same.
Remove wheel, remove freewheel (addition of vice has permanently
solved this difficult job making it child's play). Screw on new
freewheel. It binds against the spoke protector. No two consecutive
freewheels are ever the same. Spent an hour looking for a junk wheel
with a spacer, disassembled it and retrieved spacer, applied under
new freewheel.
Remove chain, uh... where is the sram power link? Spend 15 minutes
inspecting each link. They're all the same. Find ancient rivet
remover, remove a rivet, take chain into bright sunshine to satisfy
open curiosity. Sram link recovered and tossed in junk drawer.
New chain with new link goes together easily - at least something
shows professionalism in this job.
Replace rear derailleur, piece of cake. Old one falls off in heap
of rust.
WD40 up derailleur cable until it works again (bike died in salt
season long ago and everything is frozen). Gears change up and
down nicely.
Front derailleur is frozen solid. WD40 it and work it back and forth
for 15 minutes until it's free again. No way to get it to reach out
to new big sprocket. Try bending. Nope. Remove front derailleur
entirely, it's back to the old days where you just pick up the chain
and put it on the ring you want. Make note to get salad tongs.
Ride to store goes fine, 3mph has returned. I go out on the big
chainwheel as it's more downhill than up, and come back on the middle
chainwheel. That will work okay. Tighten up L and R cranks slightly.
Total work time, 5 hours, still washing grit off my hands. Enough time
to pay for a new high end Huffy, more or less.
It's on the hairy edge of too many parts at once, where I go to a new
Huffy, but I happen to like this model and frame, and the prospect
of adding fenders and luggage carriers to a new one make it less
attractive to spring for a new one.
A close thing though.
One amazing thing, the kickstand resurrected itself. It had been
frozen solid and somehow freed itself up enough to WD40 it the
rest of the way. Maybe salt rusted away an obstruction.
--
Ron Hardin
[email hidden]
On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.