Originally Posted by
davester
This is a topic I've always wondered about. Grease for the bearings and oil for the pawls makes sense, whether it be for bicycle freewheels or sailboat winches (which are remarkably similar to freewheels). That said, I've always in the past done routine lubrication of freewheels by doing something similar to what
base2 suggests above (i.e. lay the wheel on its side and dribble oil or Triflow or something similar into the gap while spinning the freewheel. I'd never thought through the process too much but it seemed to work. Is this the right way to go about freewheel maintenance (short of disassembly)?
Yes, I'd also agree that, short of disassembly, dribbling oil in from the back for the pawls works well when lubrication is needed.
Back in the 1980s Wheelsmith advocated using light grease for the pawls. They sold a mechanism that threaded into the back of a freewheel (removed from the wheel) that had a grease nipple that allowed you to use a grease gun and pump grease into the free wheel without disassembling. Obviously you can't dribble grease in. The Wheelsmith mechanism and grease in the freewheel worked great. You pumped a bit extra through until the grease came out the other side clean, and you'd cleaned and lubed the freewheel. And the freewheel was wonderfully quiet.
I don't think that is recommended any more. The grease can dry out or if you go to a cold environment and the grease thickens and suddenly your freewheel free wheels in both directions. Been there, done that. The pawls never engage. Maybe you could find a light enough grease and keep it refreshed enough to avoid problems. But oil is a better way to go.