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Suntour cassettes

Old 12-01-19, 12:19 PM
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LBCwanabe 
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Suntour cassettes

Hey all,
I got a good deal on a fixer upper vintage 750 trek. It needs a new drivetrain. Now do I remove this rear cassette? It says Suntour AP II



thanks!
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Old 12-01-19, 12:51 PM
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Clean it up and take a better pic for us please.

Did bearings fit there where grease is shown in your pic? Looks like an old shimano thread-on model with the bearings outside the freewheel. I've had a couple of those. You can't simply replace them with just any freewheel.

Though, the nice thing about these is you can repack the drive-side bearings without removing the freewheel.

Last edited by SurferRosa; 12-01-19 at 12:58 PM.
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Old 12-01-19, 01:05 PM
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yes the bearings were cupped there. It was capped by a rubber gasket

Originally Posted by SurferRosa
Clean it up and take a better pic for us please.

Did bearings fit there where grease is shown in your pic? Looks like an old shimano thread-on model with the bearings outside the freewheel. I've had a couple of those. You can't simply replace them with just any freewheel.

Though, the nice thing about these is you can repack the drive-side bearings without removing the freewheel.


the standard FR2 tool is too narrow. The notches show above measure 30mm

Last edited by LBCwanabe; 12-01-19 at 01:08 PM.
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Old 12-01-19, 01:13 PM
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IF it is a cassette, it takes two chain whips. BTW, Suntour cassettes have been out of production for decades, and use a unique spline pattern. So no Shimano cassette is going to fit. You will find NOS Suntour cassettes for sale on eBay at higher prices.

The one you have is clearly shot.
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Old 12-01-19, 01:28 PM
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Yeah, this is a cassette. Suntour AP II was a cassette. As wrk101 says, you'll need two chain whips to remove it. One on the smallest sprocket and one on some other sprocket. Turn to "unscrew" the smallest sprocket and then the rest of them should slide off the splines. For $40-ish you can get a new-old-stock cassette on Ebay.

The two notches in the bearing race in your photo allow you to disassemble the freehub body. This should not be necessary unless the bearings and ratchet when you spin the cassette backwards are really crunchy. I would just drip some oil through these bearings.
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Old 12-01-19, 04:43 PM
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Unfortunately the original cassette is toasted beyond repair. Can anyone tell me if any ap model cassette should work?
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Old 12-01-19, 07:03 PM
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Originally Posted by LBCwanabe
Unfortunately the original cassette is toasted beyond repair. Can anyone tell me if any ap model cassette should work?
I ...think so. Is it 7 speed? It looked like 7 speed from the picture, but I could be mistaken. Just stay with 7 speeds and I think you'll be fine. I mean, do a visual comparison first. Those Ebay sellers often post really good pictures. Unfortunately the usual sources don't say much about Suntour cassettes so I don't have anything authoritative, just what I've heard, which is not much.
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Old 12-01-19, 07:29 PM
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Old 12-02-19, 07:56 AM
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Thanks for the help CV! I ultimately had to put it in the vise and use a screwdriver and hammer 🤨




#SuntourAPII
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Old 12-02-19, 10:04 AM
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The cassette sprockets are rusty for sure, however, there does not seem to be too much wear. I don't see sharks fins or hooking on the tops of the sprockets. This may be salvageable. Is the hub still good? If so, there are several methods to remove the rust:

Evaporust
Wire Wheel
Sand Paper
Vinegar

What I do is to grind off the rivets on the largest sprocket to break the cassette down to the individual sprockets. The you can clean them up. The rivets are not needed to reassemble. They were only there to make assembly easier in the factory.
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Old 12-02-19, 10:28 AM
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Originally Posted by Velo Mule
The cassette sprockets are rusty for sure, however, there does not seem to be too much wear. I don't see sharks fins or hooking on the tops of the sprockets. This may be salvageable. Is the hub still good? If so, there are several methods to remove the rust:

Evaporust
Wire Wheel
Sand Paper
Vinegar

What I do is to grind off the rivets on the largest sprocket to break the cassette down to the individual sprockets. The you can clean them up. The rivets are not needed to reassemble. They were only there to make assembly easier in the factory.
No need to go that far. Degrease with a great degreaser, scrub the crud out. Find a container that can hold the cassette as is, and cover with Evaporust. 24 hours later, scrub and rinse, and you should have a squeaky clean cassette. I don't like rust specks, so I've taken to coating the cogs with Fluidfilm to block moisture and oxygen from the steel after a rust removal.

Word of caution if you're replacing: Later Suntour cassettes and hubs had two flavors, Accushift Plus, and Accushift Plus Microdrive. The Microdrive system was meant to reduce drivetrain weight by using 6 speed length freehubs and higher cassette gearing (in 7 speeds) paired with smaller chainrings. Fortunately, the cassettes are easy to spot with two cogs as part of the lockring instead of one. The hubs are much harder to identify, but paying attention to rubber seal that sits proud of the freehub body is a good check.
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Old 12-02-19, 10:32 AM
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11-28 accushift cassettes aren't too bad, price-wise. 11-32 or the really rare 11-34 cassettes sit listed for months at $200 or get snapped up at $60. It looks like you're missing a tooth on the lockring cog.
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