Marezed1644

My front hub is extremely loose, sometimes the power from the pedals does not initiate the drivetrain, I took it apart and can't find a way to tighten the ffs system. this is a dropstyle ffs tourist bike. If anyone has any help, please help me.

Andrew R Stewart 

First some terms- Front hub is thought to be at the center of the front wheel, usually not involved with the drivetrain. I suspect you are referring to the bottom bracket which is the bearing unit in the frame's bottom bracket shell and allows the crank arms to spin smoothly. Correct?

I doubt you'll find any service parts for a FFS (Front Freewheeling System) for a few reasons. But they are replaceable with the much more common non freewheeling crankset and bottom bracket that fits. These are readily available but care is needed when picking them to match each other and the frame dimensionally.

The concern with doing this crank replacement is that the freewheel really also needs to be replaced with one that has the, also, much more common ratcheting internals (then the very high friction clutch the FFS cogs actually are mounted on). If not done so when the rider tries to coast the upper stretch of the chain will want to continue moving and become bunched up possibly falling into the wheel's spokes. The chain's lower run back to the rear der cage will get all stretched out and possibly bend the cage or der. Last is for safety reasons as a chain that can't stop moving can break ankles and cause fall downs.

And new freewheel usually also means a new chain. All this easily adds up to around $100+ with no labor or tool costs. Is the bike worth it? Is the lack of a FFS feature a deal killer? Can you do your own work? Andy

Marezed1644

I love doing my own work and tbh, this is the bike in the best condition in my house and the closest I got to fully functional, I need it for everyday commute, I believe I can fix it, I just need more info as to how I can tighten it so the front hub / cassete is not wobbling all over the place.

Iride01 

If it's like this one, then the crank itself is tightened up pretty much like any one piece Ashtabula crank. Make sure you understand the procedures for doing so. If it is the crank being loose in bottom bracket, then that may mean the bearings or races are worn. However a loose locknut will do the same too. If you are trying to just tighten that locknut, then you are doing it wrong. Snug up the cone washer below the keyed washer first.

https://si.shimano.com/en/pdfs/ev/FC...FF11-0230C.pdf

If your loose is in the front freewheel system, then maybe the drawing will help you figure it out. If it's the pawls don't grab, then maybe a flush with mineral spirits or light lube might help.

grumpus

Try to use the correct terms to avoid confusion. I guess by front hub / cassette you mean bottom bracket bearings and chainring/chainset.
To fix it you'll need to remove the pedal, lock nut, tab washer and adjusting cone from the left side of the crank. These are reverse threaded. Then remove the clipped bearing so you can manoeuvre the crank out of the bottom bracket shell.
Now remove the other clipped bearing and the front freewheel from the crank (this is a regular right hand thread) and remove the chainring from the freewheel by removing the snap ring. After checking that the external bearing surface on the freewheel is good, clean the assembly in an ultrasonic bath, then dry it with compressed air and oil it. Assembly is the reverse of disassembly, you'll probably need new bearings and grease, possibly new cups. Be sure to tighten the freewheel to the crank, or you'll have to readjust the bearings as soon as it tightens itself. If after this procedure the problem remains, you'll need to find a new front freewheel (unlikely) or convert to regular rear freewheel (because that was fine before Shimano invented FFS and it's still fine now) - if you can get a drive side cone for that crank you might only need a regular chainring for the crank and a freewheel for the back wheel.
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dedhed

1 piece or 3 piece crank?

dedhed

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...freewheel.html

Jeff Wills

This is incorrect. If the bike in question has a one piece crank and the OP wants to convert it to a standard-type freewheel (it doesn’t sound like it), they will need to replace the crank also. The one-piece FFS crank does not have the spud that engages the chainring on a conventional one-piece crank.

dedhed

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grumpus

Well spotted, I forgot about that important detail. To be fair, I've not seen one of these since the 1980s.

Jeff Wills

Well, I went to Schwinn School in 1980 so rebuilding FFS cranks was required. I don’t think I ever worked on one in the shop after that.

wheelreason

Every FFS I've seen were cottered 3 piece cranks. Hard to believe anyone is still riding one around. Does it have the Positron shifting?...

Jeff Wills

The FFS came in cottered, cotterless, and one-piece crank versions. In theory it could be used without Positron shifting but I think the selling point was easy shifting for beginners. The FFS and Positron shifting kind of go together.

dedhed

I've only seen 1 piece

rickpaulos

I run the local bike coop and we get plenty of FFS crank equipped bikes. Need parts? we got em. I took one part when they first came out to see how it worked. Never had one apart since. You can rinse out (30 seconds) the front freewheel without taking it apart (30 minutes).

I put a pair of FFS cranks on an old Columbia tandem as an experiment. It allowed for independent pedaling but you loose the coaster brake. The single hand brake on the old tandem was pretty poor so I didn't leave the cranks on for long. The 1 piece doubles have chain guards spot welded on, both the inside and outside so the chain never jumped off.

FFS came in a number of versions:
By far the most common is the 1 piece crank with dual ring.
Kinda rare: 1 piece crank with single ring.
Steel cotterless with single or double ring.
An all alloy double cotterless. used a splined axle and bb cups that were threaded in backwards. One of the first cranks to come with the extractor key bolts. Came out about the same era as the arabesque components.
I don't think Shimano ever made a cotter pin crank of any sort. Shimano was about gears at first. By the time they expanded in to all the other bike parts, cotter pin cranks were passe.

The Positron index derailleurs were not always supplied on the same bike. It was up to the manufacturer or the brand of bike to decide.

Schwinn was the biggest user, Calliente, some years of the Varsity, and World Tourist. Lets take a heavy bike and spec even heavier parts for it. Panasonic was a distant second. Some of those Schwinns were made by Panasonic.

The entire FFS concept was for consumers who couldn't understand the basic rule of you have to pedal to shift gears and probably never shifted anyhow.

wheelreason

The cranks were not labeled, Shimano, and I don't know if they were or not, but the 1980 Panasonic Villager II came with Cottered FFS double crank (with chain guard). I know because that is the first one I took apart and serviced. I can also string a Wilson T-2000 with natural gut...

wheelreason

The cranks were not labeled Shimano, and I don't know if they were or not, but the 1980 Panasonic Villager II came with Cottered FFS double crank (with chain guard). I know because that is the first one I took apart and serviced. Speaking of the 80s, I can also string a Wilson T-2000 with natural gut...

sweeks

I thought "FFS" was something else...

Jeff Wills

It was Shimano marketing-speak:
“For Fred’s Sake.”