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The Nankai company has been around since 1924 and has been making some of the most reliable
freecoasters on the market since 1995. This video will cover the rebuild and maintenance
of both their 3/8 and 14mm axle freecoasters.
You will need, a socket wrench with either a 14, 15 or 17mm head to remove the pegs depending
on the size of your axle and nuts. You will also need an adjustable wrench, some
high quality grease, and the all important 23mm cone wrench. I also like to rebuild my
coasters in a vise, it just makes life easier. The first step is to break apart the drive
side cone nut from the drive side bearing cone.
Completely remove both the cone nut and bearing cone from the axle.
Next, remove the driver but be careful not to loose any of the loose ball bearings within
the driver. You can now take out the drive side bearing
cage. If your hub is old, the cage may be worn and the bearings may fall out all over
the place. You can try and reshape the cage, or just buy new ones. I don’t advocate loose
ball mods for this coaster. Pull the wheel from the hub internals, the
clutch may get stuck within the hub shell like it has here.
After you pull out the clutch, remove the slack washer.
Next is the clutch spring. This should be very tight and hard to get off.
Here is the clutch spring but on the 3/8 axle version.
Notice that the tail should always face to the right if you are looking at it.
This spring provides resistance to the clutch so that the clutch can move laterally and
engage into the lump within the hub shell; this drives the wheel forward.
Next, remove the non- drive side bearing cage. Now let’s take a look at the non-drive side
assembly. First we have a cone nut, then a spacer, a
dust cover, then the brake cone. All of these pieces need to be locked together
as one piece, otherwise you will have all sorts of problems with slack, noise and wobble.
The same goes for the 3/8 axle versions, with or without deco caps.
It’s very important to clean all your parts very well, the cleaner the better.
Clamp the non-drive side assembly in the vise and make sure everything is nice and locked
up. Once your hub is together, you can’t tighten this so now is the time.
Now it’s time for a lube… Make sure every surface has a generous amount
on it. If a little seeps out while you’re riding, that’s probably a good thing.
Grease up the non-drive side bearing cage and drop it in.
Bearings in cages should always face to the inside of the hub.
You especially want lots of grease on your clutch spring and slack washer.
One thing to notice about the slack washer on the 14mm Bamboo is that it has a little
bevel to it. You what the bevel to taper up to the center of the axle.
Next the clutch should slide on. You should be able to turn it, but it should take a generous
amount of force to make it move. I like to fill up the clutch with grease,
there is a lot of friction and possibly even heat here, so a little extra may help keep
the ghosts away. Next I like to prepare the driver. I fill
the bearing race with grease so that I can easily place in the bearings.
Make sure you have all the bearings in place and there is plenty of grease. The driver
undergoes the most force of all the bearings of a coaster.
Grease up the threads of the drive to insure that every component has a nice layer of lube.
The drive side bearing comes next. It’s placed in the driver within its race.
I set the driver aside and grease up the hub shell.
I make sure that both races and the body its self all get nicely greased.
Drop the hub shell and wheel over the internals and make sure it spins freely.
You can now put on the driver that you prepared earlier.
Make sure to screw it in counterclockwise until it stops.
Screw on the bearing cone, followed by the cone nut.
Now here comes the tricky part, dialing in your hub. You what it tight enough not to
wobble or have side to side play, but loose enough to roll and spin freely.
Take your hub out of the vise and put one hand on the non-drive side while tightening
the bearing cone with your 23mm cone wrench. This
doesn’t take much force to get it tight. If you have never done this before, it may
take you a little time to get it right and dialed in to perfection.
After you have it spinning great and there is no wobble or side to side play, lock the
cone nut and bearing cone together. Make sure to tighten these as much as you can so that
they can’t come loose while you are taking your wheel on and off your bike.
Many times I’ll tighten the bearing cone just a hair too tight so that when I lock
the two together, the bearing cone loosens just a little and everything dials in perfect.
I hope this video has helped you understand your coaster better and got you back on your
bike where all of us belong.