Limper

Greetings, I hope you can help me with this conversion. I got mostly out of the bicycle scene about 1990, and am just getting back in. There's a lot about components developed in the last thirty years or so that I know nothing about: cassettes, brifters, indexed shiftering, etc.

Recently I bought a 1987 Schwinn Prologue equipped mostly with Shimano 600 Tri-Color components. The biggest rear cog was a little smaller than I liked (23 teeth). After doing (not enough) research I found a NOS 7-speed Hyperglide cassette that I assumed would simply replace the 7-speed cassette that was on the bike. You can probably guess what happened next: I found that the old cassette was a Uniglide and I need another cassette body.

I don't want to make the same mistake of buying a part that won't fit my hub, but I can't find a reference to a part number for a 7-speed cassette body that fits my hub. I asked at my LBSs but they don't know about such old parts. Any suggestions? If it helps the hub's dust cover is marked Shimano 600 FH-6400 (if FH- stands for "front hub" then this is wearing the wrong plastic dust cover).

If it helps, the Hyperglide cassettes box is marked "2-11E0310057".

Thanks for reading.

base2 

You are not going to like this, but you'd be money and heartache ahead if you just bought a modern free hub or robbed a used freewheel hub and built it into the old wheel. Or, cheaper still considering shop labor, just buy a whole new wheel. 7 speed freewheel wheels are super cheap & readily available. The old uni-glides are obsolete, out of production, and unavailable. It sucks, but the march of progress has rendered uni-glide extinct. You could check Sheldon Brown for how to convert the new hyper-glide cassette to work on the old uni-glide hub, but I think that stuff is hit and miss depending on what particular variety of pieces you are working with.

My tandem had a similar issue. It turned into a whole new drive train. Believe me, if there was a way out of the uni-glide Achilles heel, I would've found it.
Sorry.

Limper

Base2, thanks for the suggestion. I may yet have to replace the hub, or the whole wheel.

There are U2B videos showing how to convert a Uniglide hub to a Hyperglide hub, and it looks pretty simple. Trouble is that I think the part number of the part I need is "377 9808", and the new 7-speed freehubs available are often numbered something like, for example, "FH-RM30-7" and I have no idea whether that's compatible with the Hyperglide cassette here beside me.

Time to start contemplating new parts.

In the old days all we had to worry about was whether the part was threaded English, French, Italian, Swiss (some parts) or Japanese. Come to think of it, the new way is probably better.

Kimmo

FH stands for freehub. I don't think it's a drama. The freehub body off just about any 7s Shimano freehub will fit. Crack the left axle locknut and remove the left cone, give the axle a whack, and either the hub's or the cone's dust cover will come off and you can remove the axle. Remove the dust cover if it's still in there. The freehub body is held onto the hub with a sleeve that comes off with a 10mm allen key, right hand thread.

The only difficult part (aside from the oomph you need to put into the allen key), is getting the dust cover out of the freehub body without deforming it. If you mangle it, it'll probably scrape on the cone.

Bill Kapaun

You can use all except the smallest HG cogs by filing out the wide tab of a HG cog to fit. End cog still needs to be threaded on.
I believe some of the EARLIEST Uni Glide hubs had the body "riveted" on.

I know for sure a RM-30 won't work. They have an entirely different spline engagement system from free hub body to hub.
Getting "true" 7 speed hubs is getting difficult. Even some of the later 7 speed cassette hubs were the longer 8 speed with a 4.5mm spacer added to take up the extra space. Your drop out spacing is likely less than the 8 &> speed hubs.

mitchmellow62

Converting a second generation 7 speed uniglide hub to 7 speed hyperglide is easy. You cannot convert a first generation uniglide hub. You can identify the second generation by the bulge near the drive side flange. Like this 600:


You'll need to buy a 7 speed hyperglide freehub body(like the FH 30; FH stands for freehub); available for less than $20 on Amazon and Ebay. If you are looking to run a cassette with an 11 tooth sprocket you will need the capreo body. Remove the locknut, washers/spacers and cone from one side of the axle. Remove the axle. Be ready to catch the ball bearings. The freehub body is held in place by a hollow bolt. The bolt takes a 10 mm hex/allen wrench. Remove the bolt and the hub body will come off with it. Put the new 7 speed hyperglide hub body in place and install the hollow bolt. You shoulde clean the bearing balls, cones, races and regrease. Install the axle, bearings, cone, washers/spacer and locknut. Be sure to adjust the bearing preload properly. You're done. Install your new cassette. This schematic of a 105 uniglide hub might help orient you: https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/ev/EV-FH-1055-1093A.pdf

If you're uncomfortable with this, any good LBS mechanic will be able to do it. I'd still buy the hyperglide freehub body and provide it.

Bill Kapaun

You have to be careful what body you recommend. Compare the spline mounting to this-
https://www.paul-lange.de/index.php/...30_7S-2389.pdf

blamester

Some where both hg and ug. Try a lockring and to confirm.

Limper

My hub does look like the one in the picture mitchmellow62 posted. However I didn't remove the old freehub body with an Allen wrench, I made a tool with four short splines (it was reverse threaded). Also the freehub body doesn't have the spline mounting as pictured in the .pdf file Bill Kapaun posted a link to.

rccardr 

Kimmo

The problem with doing it the easy way, is that you have to repeat it for each cassette you fit, and you don't have HG shifting onto and off the smallest cog, which you can never replace when it gets worn.

What the hell? Can you take some pics?

mitchmellow62

Bill Kapaun is absolutely right. My bad! The FH-M563 should work. https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/ev/EV-FH-M563-1369.pdf

I saw one on Amazon for $21.

Apologies to all.

GrainBrain

There are still NOS uniglide cassettes in eBay. This one:

https://www.ebay.com/p/Shimano-600-U...26t/1701594917

Is $50, not too pricey if you consider it's cheaper then a different freehub + cassette + labor. It could last a few years and get you on the road fast.

Bike Gremlin

I've started using Unior Hub Genie for that purpose (it's not intended for that originally, something similar though). Easy, fast, damage free.
Any similar tool should do the trick.

Dean51 

My situation is different than the OP's in that I'm working with Dura Ace 7400 freehubs that have what I'll call a unique threaded attachment to the Dura Ace hub. To my knowledge, there is no option to convert these hubs to Hyperglide, but that is not the point of this posting.

I've had great success with my 6-speed index shifted set-up using modified Hyperglide cogs in positions 2 through 6. For position 1, I've purchase brand new Uniglide cogs (32mm threaded for the Dura Ace application) from Loose Screws. I don't notice any degradation in shifting performance to or from the 1st position cog. Perhaps this is because I'm not too demanding. On the other hand, I only use the 1st position cog in combination with the big chainring and I'm not there very often or for very long with all the hills in my area.

Recognizing that new Uniglide cogs at an affordable price may not always be available, I've purchased a few extras that will easily see me into the grave.

Dean