Attn: Staton Chain Drive Riders (Freewheel Issue)

[kerf]

Has anyone else had trouble with the ACS left hand freewheel being in-concentric. The symptoms are a tightening and loosening of the chain as the wheel rotates under power, a surge in the bike at speed, along with an audible variation in chain noise. It seems to be a carp shoot whether a new freewheel will be better or worse than the one you're running.

 

[mlcorson]

Kerf:
Perhaps, I've seen a bit of wobble...maybe. Difficult to check while riding and not sure how to check it while stationary. I have not heard or experienced the other symptoms. At any speed, that noise would by fairly short (fast) in frequency. I'd check my rig if you or someone else can explain how to do it safely.
-Mike

 

[kerf]

This has got me baffled, it actually is occurring while freewheeling too. I have the back of the bike on a stand and when I spin the rear wheel I can see the wobble. Gonna clean up my old freewheel and see how it does. We need a White Industries ENO left hand freewheel but to my knowledge the ACS carp is the only one available.

 

[DetonatorTuning]

long answer short, yes.

i replaced both upper and lower freewheels but the surge was unstopable with my build sadly.

steve

 

[kerf]

Thank you Steve, at least kerf is not delusional, medication must be working.

 

[kerf]

After complaining to David about the ACS freewheel, he contacted them and they agreed to replace two of them. They told me that the two they shipped me had .004" and .008" run-out, both within spec., so Saturday I got busy trying to isolate my chain oscillation issue.

After replacing a noisy wheel bearing, I set me wheel in my home made test stand, sans freewheels. I placed my dial indicator on the left side freewheel threads and found .003" run-out on my hub. With the .004" freewheel in place (wrench tightened), it had .005" run out. When I clamped my freewheel tool in the vise and really tightened it down, this dropped to .003". I'm not happy with it but it's acceptable.

Next, I checked the output shaft and found no discernible run-out but when I checked the run-out on my dual sprocket, it came out to .015"!!!!! That's a big problem but I was unable to separate the track sprockets from the adapter to find the exact problem. I'll email David again.

 

[kerf]

After soaking my dual sprocket for four hours in Kroil, I tried again. I clamped the 5/8" shaft in the pipe clamp of my bench vise, applied an 18" pipe wrench to the end opposite the sprocket, with a board to the floor to keep the wrench from turning. With a 18" "cheater" on the chain whip, it parted with a loud snap, thought the whip had broken. That R460 tightens those things in an unbelievable manner.

After installing the adapter on the gear box, I employed my dial indicator again and found the Staton adapter has .013' run-out, not good.