WHEEL PART SALVAGING
This basic tutorial will demonstrate the disassembly of a typical multi-speed rear wheel that includes a
Shimano type threaded freewheel. This type of freewheel and steel hub are often used when creating a
custom bike or trike because you can easily modify the hub and adapt the freewheel to an axle. Shimano
type freewheels are easy to identify because they have an inner spline, which you will see through in this
tutorial.
To completely disassemble a wheel into its individual components, you will need several basic tools and
one custom tool. Two wrenches will be needed in order to release the cone nuts or the hub nuts from a
slightly rusted axle: one to hold the axle from spinning and the other to loosen the nuts. You can also
purchase a cone wrench that will allow you to grip the small collar on the cone nut and remove the
locking nut on the same side of the axle.
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Wheel part salvaging
CONTENTS
Removing axle nuts ...................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Removing the lock nuts .............................................................................................................................................................. 5
Removing the cone nut ............................................................................................................................................................... 7
The axle parts ................................................................................................................................................................................. 8
The freewheel spline ................................................................................................................................................................... 9
The freewheel tool .....................................................................................................................................................................11
Removing the freewheel .......................................................................................................................................................... 12
Freewheel parts........................................................................................................................................................................... 13
Spoke screwdriver .....................................................................................................................................................................14
Loosening the spokes ................................................................................................................................................................ 15
Removing the spokes ................................................................................................................................................................ 17
Unassembled wheel ...................................................................................................................................................................18
Cleaning the parts .......................................................................................................................................................................18
The final cleaning........................................................................................................................................................................20
Cleaning the spokes ...................................................................................................................................................................21
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Wheel part salvaging
The other tool is a custom made freehub spline tool that was made by filing down a bolt to fit snugly into
the freehub spline in order to turn it. The bolt is welded to a steel arm or rod to gain leverage (I used an
old steel bicycle crank). You can also purchase a freehub spline tool at a bicycle shop, but the homebuilt
tool works just as well.
The flat head screwdriver is used to loosen the spoke nipples. Once again, this tool has been slightly
modified by grinding a slot in the center to help clear the spoke head. This will be shown later in the
tutorial.
REMOVING AXLE NUTS
When you are known as the neighborhood bike building person, you will often receive all sorts of bike
part donations from friends and neighbors, and many times, you will find a lot of surface rust on bolts
and exposed steel parts. Fear not - surface rust can usually be cleaned up with minimal effort, and even
the most badly twisted or rusted cycle will yield an abundance of reusable components for your own
designs.
This wheel has a badly bent rim and a moderate amount of surface rusting, but the freewheel still clicks
in reverse and the axle still spins freely. Having a steel hub means that this wheel is totally usable in a
custom design and the Shimano type freewheel will be easily removed using the simply freewheel
removal tool. The slightly rusted axle may present some challenge, but as long as the nuts can be
removed, it should also be salvageable.
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Wheel part salvaging
If you cannot unscrew the axle nuts by hand due to a damaged thread or surface rust, then you will need
to use a pair of wrenches in order to hold the axle from turning as you loosen the hub nut. Place one
wrench on either lock nut (the nut closest the hub) and then loosen the axle nut by turning it in the
counter clockwise direction. If the threads are well worn or rusted, you may not be able to remove the
axle nut on either side, which means that you will have to cut the axle in order to salvage the hub or
freewheel. In the case of a really stuck nut, the cone nuts and locking nut bay start to unscrew instead. If
this happens, try the axle nut on the other side instead.
Once the axle nut has been removed, most of the surface rust will have been removed as well since the
nut will cut a new path through the rust and grime, leaving the bare threads. One way to clean up a
rusted axle or one with slightly flattened threads is to run the axle nut up and down the threads a few
times by screwing it on and off, making it act like a thread cutter. The remaining surface rust can be
removed using a wire brush and some Varsol once the axle nuts have been removed.
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Wheel part salvaging
REMOVING THE LOCK NUTS
The next nut on the axle is the locking nut, a flat nut that sits on the outer face of the cone nut to lock it in
place. Since the cone nuts also include a bearing race, it is important that they are held in place on the
axle to maintain the correct tension between the bearing face and the ball bearings. The entire weight on
the axle rides on the two cone nuts, which sit on the ball bearings. There are two ways to remove the
locking nuts: by using a cone wrench to grip one of the cone nuts or by using a second wrench to hold
one locking nut as you loosen the other. Most of us do not own a set of bicycle cone wrenches, so just use
a pair of wrenches to loosen one of the locking nuts by turning it in the counter clockwise rotation as
you hold the opposite nut from moving with another wrench.
If you are using the two wrench method, then it will be random as to which of the locking nuts comes
loose. If you loosen the non-freewheel locking nut then it is easier to pull the axle because as you will
soon see, the freewheel cone nut is buried beneath the face of the freehub where a wrench cannot reach.
Either way, you can certainly remove the locking nut once it has been loosened as the axle threads
should now be fairly clean.
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Wheel part salvaging
As luck would have it, I managed to get the freewheel side locknut free from the axle, so now I have the
added challenge of removing the cone nut that is sitting in the freehub opening where a wench cannot
fit. You can't even use a socket on the cone nut since it only has two flat sides, but not to worry, there is
always a way. Also, note the spacer found between the locking nut and cone nut to allow the locking nut
to clear the outer face of the freehub.
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Wheel part salvaging
REMOVING THE CONE NUT
Since no wrench will fit in the freewheel hole to grip the cone nut, you will have to find other means to
hold it in place as you turn the axle in the counterclockwise direction to unscrew the cone nut. If you
have needle nose pliers that are small enough, you may be able to grip the flat sides of the cone nut, but a
flat head screwdriver will also do the trick. Place the blade against one of the flat sides on the cone nut
and then spin the axle to unscrew the cone nut. Since the axle will be clean from being under the spacer,
the cone nut should easily unscrew with minimal friction as you hold it in place with the screwdriver
and spin the axle in the counterclockwise direction.
Once the cone nut has unscrewed enough to pass the face of the freehub, you can now grip it with a
wrench to help get it all of the way off the axle. Some wheels include a small dust cover over the cone
nuts, so you may need to give the axle a slight hit with a hammer on the opposite end to release this dust
ring from the cone nut. The dust ring will be stuck under the freewheel until it is removed later.
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Wheel part salvaging
The cone nut is shaped like a cone on the side with the bearing race, and you can see the area where the
balls roll; it will be the well worn light colored track near the end of the cone. If this area is badly rusted
or cracked, then your cone nut will need to be replaced. When the cone nut is coming free from the hub,
the ball bearings will most likely fall out since they do not include a retaining ring. Work over a bucket
so you can collect the balls as they drop out of the race.
THE AXLE PARTS
The axle parts removed from a bicycle hub consist of one axle, several ball bearings, a spacer, two cone
nuts, two locking nuts, two axle nuts, and usually a few axle washers. If you plan to reuse these parts
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Wheel part salvaging
again, make sure that there are no cracks in the cone nuts and that there is no rust on the surface of the
ball bearings. If the ball bearings do not shine after a cleaning, then they are no good.
THE FREEWHEEL SPLINE
A thread on Shimano type freewheel has an inside spline that needs to be gripped in order to unscrew
the part in the counter clockwise rotation. You can't just grab the sprocket teeth and try to unscrew the
freewheel since it will just ratchet backwards as it is designed to do. The inside spline is like a bolt
turned inside out, so you need a tool that is the opposite of a socket in order to grip the spline. Bicycle
shops sell freewheel removal tools, but you can easily make your own removal tool for next to nothing
using a bolt and an 8 to 12 inch long piece of steel rod or pipe.
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Wheel part salvaging
This is my home brew freewheel removal tool, made by welding a bolt to the end of an old steel bicycle
crank. This tool is now 15 years old and has removed more freewheels than I can even count. The bolt
chosen was one that was slightly too large to fit into the freewheel spline so it could be ground down
using a flap disc to fit tightly into the spline. Since you need a lot of leverage to remove a stuck freewheel,
an 8 inch or longer arm will be necessary in order to crank out the freewheel.
The bolt is ground or hand filed on the flats until it fits tightly into the spline in the freewheel. With five
sides, the bolt will be plenty strong to torque out the freewheel, even if you have to pound the end of the
lever with a hammer, as often is the case. Weld the bolt around the threaded area using a good solid
bead so that it can withstand the punishment of being cranked and hit with a hammer.
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Wheel part salvaging
THE FREEWHEEL TOOL
To use the home made freewheel removal tool, place the bolt over the spline (with the axle removed)
and then tap the bolt into the spline. The bolt should fit tightly into the spline but not so tight that is has
to be pounded in. A store bought freewheel spline tool will drop right into the spline and can be handled
with a crescent wrench. I think it’s actually easier to remove a freewheel using the home made tool than
the store bought tool since you can't pound away on the store bought tool without damaging your
wrench or cracking the tool itself.
Once the freewheel removal tool is inserted tightly into the spline, give it a good crank in the counter
clockwise direction to see if the freewheel will budge. It probably won't! You need to hold the rim
between your legs and then pound on the end of the handle with a hammer in order to get the freewheel
to loosen from the hub. A few good whacks should get it to turn and then you can remove it the rest of
the way with minimal effort. Remember that the freewheel has been torqued on from years of hard
pedaling and may be rusted as well, so expect a small battle here.
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Wheel part salvaging
REMOVING THE FREEWHEEL
Once you have a good grip on the rim, place the freewheel tool handle in the parallel position and whack
on it with a hammer, making sure that you are pushing the freewheel in the counter clockwise rotation
so that it unscrews. If you don't want to scratch the rim, place it on a board or on top of a cloth so it is not
bent or damaged from the force of the hammering.
Once the pounding initially releases the freehub, it will easily spin right off the threaded hub. Since the
hub threads have been protected from the elements, there will not usually be any rust or dirt on them,
so the freehub can be unscrewed by hand the rest of the way.
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Wheel part salvaging
The threads on the freewheel and hub are very fine 1.375" x 24 teeth per inch, which is why the part was
so tightly bound to the hub. As you are probably noticing, the freewheel is a fully integrated assembly
and it will be easy to adapt it to an axle for trike or quadcycle use, and this is exactly how it has been
done in many of our plans.
FREEWHEEL PARTS
Freewheel and axle parts are mostly interchangeable between different wheels, so you can repair one
wheel with a damaged hub using the freewheel parts from another, or swap freewheels with different
sizes of chain rings to alter the overall gear range of a cycle. Even a single speed BMX freewheel will
thread onto the hub in place of a multispeed freewheel, so always salvage these parts for later use, even
if the rest of the rim is badly bent and of no use.
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Wheel part salvaging
Hub threads are also common to all hubs that use the Shimano type threaded freewheel, and the steel
hubs are of particular interest to this hobby since they can be cut and welded in order to create different
drive systems for various home made vehicles. Our OverKill Chopper uses a hub like this that has been
modified to fit into a wide car wheel, and our Viking Tandem Tadpole Trike uses these parts to create a
unique independent crossover drive system so one rider can stop pedaling without interfering with the
other rider.
SPOKE SCREWDRIVER
To remove the hub from the wheel, you will need to remove all of the spokes. A flat head screwdriver is
all you need in order to turn out the spoke nipples to remove the spokes from a wheel. You can actually
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Wheel part salvaging
customize your screwdriver to be a little more spoke friendly by filing out a small section from the
center of the blade.
By filing a notch out of the screwdriver blade, any part of the spoke body that protrudes past the spoke
nipple will not obstruct the screwdriver blade. Normally, you won't want any part of the spoke threads
sticking out that far, but it can happen, and it is difficult to get a screwdriver blade into the nipple if the
spoke is in the way. A hand file or zip disc can make a notch in the screwdriver blade as shown here.
LOOSENING THE SPOKES
If you intend to reuse the rim, then it is important to loosen the spokes a little bit at a time as you work
around the entire rim so that the offset spoke tension does not warp the rim. Start at the valve hole and
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Wheel part salvaging
then turn each spoke nipple two turns in the counter clockwise direction until you have loosened every
spoke the same amount. At this point, the spoke will all seem fairly loose.
With each spoke loosened by two or three turns, you can probably unscrew the nipples the rest of the
way by hand, using two fingers to spin them from the inside of the rim. Once the spokes are loose, you
don't have to worry about warping the rim, so go ahead and remove each nipple one after the other.
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Wheel part salvaging
REMOVING THE SPOKES
When all of the spoke nipples have been removed, you will have a huge ball of spokes sticking randomly
out of the hub. Pull and push them through the holes until they are all removed one at a time. Holding
the hub in one direction to let the spokes drop makes this job quicker.
One hub and a matching set of spokes to go with it. There are many different lengths of spokes available,
so screw the nipples back in the ends of the spokes and then keep them in a bundle so you have a
complete set. Badly rusted spoke nipples or spokes should not be reused as they will not hold the
tension properly once pulled tight.
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Wheel part salvaging
UNASSEMBLED WHEEL
The completely unassembled wheel reveals many reusable parts. Although this wheel was obviously left
out in the elements for several years, most of the damage is only surface rust. This can be easily cleaned
off using some light sandpaper, steel wool and cleaning solvents. I have yet to see a wheel that is so far
gone that there wasn't something usable on it.
CLEANING THE PARTS
Many times, a part that looks old and worn will only need a quick cleaning in order to shine once again.
Surface rust, old grease, and dirt can all be removed using some steel wool, cleaning solvent, and a wire
brush with a little work.
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Wheel part salvaging
Start by degreasing the parts with a rag and some cleaning agent like Varsol. Sometimes the parts will
come back to life as if new with just a little cleaning, but this is not always the case. Bearings and bearing
races should always be cleaned thoroughly and checked for damage before re-using since these parts
will fail if rusted or damaged. Steel parts will usually clean up nicely if the rust is not too deep, and light
surface rust can be taken down using fine grit sandpaper or steel wool.
A wire brush is perfect for cleaning those sprocket teeth since the bristles will work deep in-between the
teeth to remove old grit and dirt that has built up over the years. Place the freewheel on a flat surface
and then run the brush along the teeth, holding the brush sideways so it works deep between each ring.
Made of hardened steel, the surface rust will probably come off quite easily as you brush the part clean.
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Wheel part salvaging
THE FINAL CLEANING
After a little work with the wire brush and a cleaning rag soaked in Varsol, the parts came out almost as
good as new. All of the ball bearings retained their shine, so they were ready to be repacked and used
again and the bearing races cleaned up with no signs of excessive wear or cracks. Even the hub shell
looked almost new again after the dirt and light surface rust had been removed using the steel wool and
a wire brush. Now, these parts could be reused in another human powered vehicle project.
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Wheel part salvaging
CLEANING THE SPOKES
Bicycle spokes are made of either steel or stainless steel. Stainless steel spokes may get dirty but will not
rust, so they can be easily cleaned using steel wool or fine grit emery cloth. Non-stainless steel spokes
will be rusted and are usually very low quality spokes, so they are not really reusable. If the nipples are
rusted to the spokes, then they are probably no good and can just be cut from the rim using a zip disc
and discarded. To clean stainless steel spokes, wrap a bit of steel wool or a scouring pad around them
and pull them back and forth until the shine comes back to the surface.
Here are all of the wheel parts after disassembly and cleanup. There were certainly a good deal of reusable parts salvaged from this otherwise junk wheel. In fact, the only part that will not go back into
service is the rim as it was badly bent and of low quality. So, the next time someone offers you a bike,
even a really badly beaten low budget bike, take it for parts as there is always something usable when
you are doing your own human powered vehicle designs.
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Wheel part salvaging
If you have a spare afternoon and a rim to play with, why not challenge yourself to pull it completely
apart and then re-assemble it, spokes and all? Wheel building is a great skill to have, and it is not as
difficult as you might think if you take your time and have a plan. So, recycle and reuse! There is no junk
pile tall enough when bike building becomes your hobby!
Free bike building tutorials:
Using a chain link tool
Basic fishmouth cutting
Arc welding
Cranks and pedals
Front derailleur
Cables
Coaster brakes
Free bike projects:
Kids electric trike
Choppers
Mountain bike tandem
Bicycle bearing basics
Lacing wheels
Frame chopping
Bike chains
Rear derailleur
Freewheel
Head tubes
Sidewinder stunt bike
Velomobile
World Record SkyCycle
Detachable tandem
Tall bikes
Spin Scooter
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Head tube bearings
Salvaging wheel parts
Bicycle autopsy
Rake and trail
Brakes
Gooseneck
Simple SWB recumbent
and more!
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