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Technical Question: Removing a rear cassette lockring


Jonathan's picture

By Jonathan - Posted on 06 September 2011

Hi everyone, my order from crc came after lots of emails and about 3 weeks of waiting. Within the contents was my new toolkit which i got to start doing general maintenance.

Im trying to remove my rear cassette lockring with all the correct tools and the lockring will move bout 3˚ with not an overwhelming amount of resistance but then just stop. I cant get it to move any further then 3˚.

Any ideas??

Btw i've removed the skewer, inserted the lockring tool with the guide on it, then holding it with the chain whip and loosening anti-clockwise.

Thanks!

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Discodan's picture

They do take a fair bit of force to undo (and retighten). It always makes me a bit nervous but give it more of a nudge

philberesford's picture

Try setting up your chainwhip and the handle of your lockring tool so they can be handled in one hand (like a big pair of pliers/scissors) then using both hands squeeze the two handles together. Your lockring should now pop loose.

nh's picture

Just try harder. For the first part there are some teeth that probably make the 3 degree step you are talking about. If you push really hard you will get a bad sounding grinding/clicking noise as it skips over the teeth but that is normal.

I usually have the wheel resting on my knees/shins and the cassette facing away and start with the chain whip (left hand) and lock ring tool (right hand) about horizontal. Then just lean on them with my body weight.

Brian's picture

And as always, be mindful of the path your hand will travel when it gives way. I can't even think of how many times I've lost skin when something like this finally decides to budge Eye-wink

philberesford's picture

Watching my dad working on the car as a kid every time he lost a 'bit of bark'.

Floydo's picture

Place your lock ring nut tool in a bench vice.
Put wheel cassette lock nut into the tool.
Pedros make a great tool that fits into the cassette better than any chain whip.
Loosen
Saves trying to hold wheels, chain whips, and nut spanners in your hands, all at once.

philberesford's picture

I would def do it this way

Brian's picture

In the end it's pretty basic, get some extra leverage to make it easier or HTFU Sticking out tongue

CharlieB's picture

Use a mallet

scottm8's picture

+1 on bench vice. Use the wheel for leverage

Jonathan's picture

So how would i set up everything with the bench vise. locknut tool in the vise and have the wheel resting on the locknut tool? then how would i use the chain whip and loosen everything??

I tryed again with the wheel resting on my lap, i put some serious power down and felt the tools flexing a fair bit and it didn't budge!!

Thanks again.

scottm8's picture

Locknut tool in the vice, wheel resting on the locknut tool. Then use the chain whip to stop the cassette turning, Then turn the wheel. You should be able to get alot of leverage and should be easy to turn. Just remember to turn it the correct way.
the cassette will be upside down so you would turn it the opposite way compared to if the cassette was facing up at you.

Good luck.

Ian_A's picture

I needed a stupid amount of mongrel to get the lockring off my wife's new trance cassette recently - 16" shifter on the lockring tool fixed it. They only need 30-40 nm I think. When I re-fit I put a tiny amount of grease on the lockring threads and use the chainwhip to take the pressure off the freehub when tightening. I use a 12 or 16" shifter and shorten my grip to about halfway along the handle to tighten - I don't do them up hugely tight, but one's never come loose and always come off when I want them to.
Good luck - just give it some agro.

Jonathan's picture

I find when i try do it in the vice i cant get the chain whip to hold, as soon as i give the slightest bit of slack in the whip it falls straight off and its peeving me off to no extent!

Ive had enough attempts for one night, i've bruised my knuckles already Smiling

Im also not entirely confident using a longer spanner as it almost feels like im twisting the cassette and i dont understand how something can physically withstand so much punishment!

There looks like theres some dry chainlube and gunk in there, is there any solvent sorta thing i can spray in there to try loosen it up?

Hasbeen Racing's picture

http://www.sidchrome.com.au/product/5890/12-driv...

Gives a stupid amount of leverage.

Ian_A's picture

Don't spray a solvent in as it will get into your freehub. I just had huge dramas with my failed Bonty freehub and its soo annoying considering its such a small part, but so important.
The lockring has little teeth and grooves that grab on the smallest ring which has similar, so you need a fair bit of force to undo it. Honestly, give it heaps, it will sound like you're breaking the freehub as it kind of clicks and vibrates as it gives, but this is just the lockring rubbing on the small ring.

Jonathan's picture

By the way.. how tight do i do it back up as i don't have a torque wrench. The lockring says 40nm but i cant program that into my arm unfortunatly.

Tomorrow im just gonna try sit it in my lap and give it the absolute beans

Thanks

Jono

Jonathan's picture

I should just take i rattle gun to the thing!

Then i probably will destroy it Laughing out loud

Zoom's picture

Lets try some maths. I'm not an expert and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm guessing that 40Nm is 40 Newton Metres. A capital is used for Newton because it's someones name, a small m for metre because it's not.

Anyway, a Newton of force is fairly close to a kilo of weight,(on earth.)
And a metre is the length of your lever. So if we halve the length of the lever we can double the weight to get the same force, right?

So to get the correct torque, you need to get an 80 kilo person to stand on the end of a 500mm wrench. Does that sound right?

Slowpup's picture

A Newton is about 0.1 kg on earth (1 kg exerts 9.81N force on the ground due to gravity) so an 8 kg person would be closer.

I wish you luck in your search for a 6 month old who will stand still long enough Eye-wink

Zoom's picture

Good stuff. We've worked out an answer. Use a 80 Kg person on a 50mm wrench.

Scottboy's picture

I will take off the cassette if you can get my pedal off , I worked on it for 40min to undo 3mm & i used the inox in it too might try wd40 tomorrow . I took the cassette of my old wheels in less than 1 min from old too new .

Zoom's picture

I assume that you know that 50% of pedals have a left hand thread.

Jonathan's picture

No need smiley..

WHAT! THE! F***!!!

i was ready lo absolutely load the crap out of it and as i was starting i hardly had any force and Pft... it open and spins off!!!

Its finally done!!

When cleaning up the hub must i put any grease or anything down on the hub, and do i need specific bike grease?

Thanks for the help everyone, much appreciated.

Scottboy's picture

sorry i cut in on your thread post deleted

Jonathan's picture

now i probably should of noted this while the hub was off but theres a little bit of wiggle in the hub. is this tightened by the nut that holds the axle skewer?

hathill's picture

If it's a Shimano QR hub, look at the instructions for the QR cone adjustment here - http://www.sheldonbrown.com/cone-adjustment.html- for info on how much play there should be and how to check it.

Quote from above

"Quick-release hubs are trickier to adjust, because the quick-release mechanism compresses the axle slightly when it is tightened. If you adjust the cones so that they feel just right off the bike, they will bind up when you tighten the quick release. You must set the cones so that there is a little bit of play when the hub is off the bike, or when the wheel is installed with the quick-release just barely tightened."

Noel's picture

I don't know what your hub is. Mine is a Mavic. Here is the video for mine:


http://youtu.be/Y5arUG3iy0Q

I use mineral oil (baby oil).

With smileys pedals, you try and remmeber to grease the threads before putting the pedals in.

Scottboy's picture

If anybody like to know how stong a shifter is just ask me it was belted with a claw hammer to get the pedal off , only took me 1 hour with WD40 7 alot of agro .....

Noel's picture

You know, if you have a long pole (hehe) which is hollow, you can slide this over a spanner to get more leverage.

Zoom's picture

Years ago where I used to work, a standard measurement of torque was the number of apprentices hanging off a two metre scaffolders pipe slipped over a big wrench.

Macr's picture

That is pretty impressive. I thought that 600ft/lbs was pretty impressive when torquing up the head of a Laser Guided Bomb.

Zoom's picture

Maths again.

600 ft pounds is about 300 foot kilos, which is about 100 metre kilos, or if you double the length to two metres, a 50 kilo apprentice. Obviously a first year one because he hasn't grown heavy yet.

philberesford's picture

You mean an apprentice who hasn't added Carlton Breweries or Lion Nathan into their investment strategy yet.

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