Bad Freewheel or Hub?

[SnowDog2112]

I was just out enjoying my ebike even though it was cold rather out.

Seems that the loud click coming from the rear hub or freewheel, has turned into a full slipping freewheel.
This loud click is not the normal ticking of the freewheel. My hub did it since I first tested it out...it's gets more obvious, the higher the gear you have it in.(You hear it when you pedal, and not when throttle is applied).

Tonight I got the freewheel to slip while pedaling. So I'm pretty certain it's failing / failed. I don't mind swapping this freewheel out and perhaps getting one with a higher top speed gear. I think I have a 14t now.

Will a new freewheel get me in business or do I potentially have a bad hub? Should I be getting on the horn to the distributor? my warranty may be expiring.

 

[MadRhino]

You have stucked ratchet inide the freewheel. Most of he time you can get it to work fine again by soaking it with gunk or WD 40 while spinning. You'll need another one anyway, sooner or later.

 

[SnowDog2112]

Thank's. The cassette has a lot of play I think that has something to do with this.

 

[amberwolf]

I don't think any of the cheap freewheel manufacturers ever oil or grease their stuff...so it's a good idea to do that, whenever you get one. See the Sheldon Brown bike site which has pages on freewheels and cassettes / etc.

 

[dogman dan]

Bad freewheel. I had one last year doing similar shit, right from the first week. Worked fine, just noisy as hell, kept making me wonder if I'd cracked a hub cover.

Just replace it.

 

[Ykick]

It's a cassette now?

Anyway, I ran into similar recently and I found submerging and heating the freewheel in a pan of oil corrected stuck ratchet pawls. Unfortunately, I used too much heat during my 1st attempt and you can view the results here:

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=67879&hilit=+freewheel

I would do it again if I had a sticky ratchet but limit heat under 150F. I'm convinced a good soaking of oil (veggie, motor or ATF) will likely restore sticky ratchet pawls mechanism.