Author Topic: Dialing in a Haro Turbine Freecoaster  (Read 6494 times)

Offline Jake4130

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Dialing in a Haro Turbine Freecoaster
« on: February 22, 2011, 06:04:21 AM »
Figured I would post this in case anyone ever needs it. I actually wrote this as a response to someone that asked me how I got my Haro Turbine Freecoaster dialed in. Since it is so long I thought sharing it with anybody interested would be a good thing. Some of this is probably useful to those with other freecoasters too. Hope it helps someone out.

Disassembly:
First lets talk about taking it apart. DON'T JUST SKIP THIS PART. How you take a hub apart can be every bit as important as how you put it back together. It will help make sure that the parts aren't trashed and the bearings are in good shape. Obviously I am assuming that the wheel is off the bike and that all pegs and washers are off the axel.

1. Remove the lock nut and "cone" nut from the driver side by putting a wrench on each side of the hub.
2. If you have problems getting the driver side loose and get the non driver side loose first, that is fine. Just remove that lock nut and "cone" too, then go to the next steps to get the driver side loose.
3. Take your two axel nuts that hold the wheel to the frame and put one on the drive side of the axel with the wide surface of the nut (if there is one) towards the driver. Thread it down so you have about a half inch of axel poking through the other side. Do not tighten it all the way to the driver.
4. Take the other nut and thread that on the driver side as well, but this time, put the wide surface of the nut on the opposite side.
5. Make sure that the axel is a good amount of the way through the second axel nut , but that the axel is not poking through. Take two wrenches and tighten the two axel nuts together.

At this point, those two nuts work as an axel vice as well as a place we can hammer without ruining anything. Worst case scenario in the end, you might have some bad nuts to replace, but those cost what? 75 cents?

6. With a wrench on the axel nut towards the driver and a wrench on the non driver side lock nut, you should now be able to loosen and remove the non driver side lock nut and "cone." If in step 2 you were able to first get the non driver side lock nut and "cone" loose and already removed them, you can use a  wrench on the axel nut furthest from the driver and a wrench on the driver side lock nut to loosen the driver side lock nut and "cone," however you will need to unlock the axel nuts from each other after and take them off in order to get the driver side lock nut and "cone" all the way off. Once you have those off, put your axel nuts back on and lock them together.
7. Now that you have all the lock nuts off, take a small hammer or rubber mallet and tap the axel nut. If your nuts are set up right, there should be no way that you could accidentally hit the end of the axel. DON'T GO CRAZY WITH HITTING IT WITH THE HAMMER. I said "tap" not pound. It should only take a little bit of tapping for the axel to poke through and pop out the non driver side bearing.

PAY ATTENTION. Your springs might fall out of the hub at this point. Be ready to catch them if they do and set them aside. They are vitally important.

8. Once the axel pops through, remove the axel nuts from the axel and feed the axle all the way out of the hub. Set the axel aside for now.
9. At this point you are trying to find your springs. There should be two. They may be stuck to your axel, so look there. They might have fallen out while taking the axel out, so check the floor or your work surface. If they are not in any of those places, they are still in the hub. Take a finger and put it inside the hub shell and feel around for the two springs. They are supposed to be in the clutch mechanism, so that is a good place to feel for them.
10. Once your springs are out, its time to remove the clutch mechanism. This is a little tricky. The best method I have found is taking a paper towel or rag and putting it over two fingers. Then take those two fingers and rag and put them inside the hub and inside the clutch. Press your fingers against the inside of the clutch and rotate your driver in what would be "reverse" for your hub. It may take a few tries, but eventually the clutch will disengage and come off. Put the clutch aside.
11. Now you need your axel again. Remove any bearings or spacers from the axel. Now take the bare axel and put it inside your hub, making sure it is the right direction that it should go in.
12. Again, put your axel nuts on the other end of the axel like you did before and tighten them together.
13. Using a small hammer or rubber mallet, tap the axel nut until the driver comes out. It should come out with the outer bearing as well.


Degreasing and Checking for Damage:
Next you need to degrease everything (except for bearings) and inspect your bearings for damage.
1. Using a solvant tank, if you have one, degrease all the parts of the hub including the inside of the hub shell. Most of us don't have access to a solvent tank, so WD-40 makes a good degreaser (about the only thing it is good for besides putting on grips. Crappy lubricant).
2. Do not degrease the bearings. Just wipe them down with a cloth to get any grease off them.
3. Check all the parts of the freecoaster for wear and damage. Some spots to look in particular is the hardened steal insert in the hub shell where the clutch mechanism pulls against and the teeth on the clutch mechanism itself. If those are badly worn, that would explain why your hub is slipping. Probably it is time to replace the part at that point. It would also probably be cheaper to buy a new freecoaster than replace the parts in it. Also look over the springs. If they are trashed, that is probably why your hub wasn't working right and you need some new ones.
4. Check all bearings for wear and make sure they are all smooth and have no dents on them. If they are damaged, replace them. You always hear this regarding bearings, but with a freecoaster, it is vital that all bearings be working well. If not, you are just asking for trouble.

The bearing in particular to look for problems is the inside driver bearing. It takes the most beating. In fact that bearing blew out of my Turbine a week after I got it. I actually rode it that way for a long time before replacing it. It is really hard to get the outer ring of that bearing out of the driver when it blows. Took a lot of grinding. Once I did replace it, I replaced it with a higher quality one. Actually I went with a cartridge bearing this time. (If you don't know the difference, look at a skateboard wheel bearing and compare that to a hub bearing.) More expensive, but a lot more durable. You could also go much more durable with a ceramic bearing. It will take some real beating, but they are also waaaaaaaay expensive. You could pretty much buy a new freecoaster for that much.

5. Check your axel for bad threads and make sure it isn't bent. Roll it on a table to see if it wobbles. Bent axels are the enemy of any freecoaster so if it is bent, replace it.

Building It Back Up:
To put it all back together I have a LOT of detail in here and it's there for a reason. Of course nothing is guaranteed, but after years of dealing with different freecoasters, I can tell you your best chances are if you follow these directions exactly.

First and foremost, make sure you have some good grease. None of that stuff from NAPA Auto Parts or that white lithium junk. REAL grease that is made for bikes, like Phil Wood or Park grease. It does make a difference and it REALLY makes a difference with freecoasters.

Have some good clean paper towels or rags on hand. Parts of this calls for having  no grease on one section of a part and good grease on another section. You will need to be able to wipe a part clean in some areas so rags or towels that are clean will be helpful.

All that said, here goes…

1. First if you have the outside bearing for the driver off you will need to put that in the hub shell first. (If your outside driver bearing, driver and inside driver bearing are all still together, go to the next step.) Put a thin layer of grease on the outer edge of the outside driver bearing.

You can probably press it into the hub shell with your hand. If not, you can use a rubber mallet to tap it in. Try to hit the outside edge of the bearing in a circular manner around the edge. Try not to hammer the bearing in the center.

Personally, I like to take a socket wrench socket that is the same diameter of the bearing and put that against  the bearing and tap the socket rather than hitting the actual bearing. Keeps from damaging the bearing.

Make sure it is all the way in and fully seated in the hub shell.

2. If your outside driver bearing, driver and inside driver bearing are all still together, put a thin layer of grease on the outer edge of the outside driver bearing. Also, put a good amount of grease on the threads of the driver that go inside the hub. These should be heavily greased; it's imperative for the clutch mechanism to work right.

In this scenario if you can't get it into the hub shell by hand, you have no choice but to use a rubber mallet or a small hammer to tap the whole assembly into the hub shell. Make sure to tap it in and not hammer on it to get it in. If you don't have a rubber mallet and must use a hammer. Be very gentle tapping the driver in and make sure you are tapping the outside edge of the driver itself and not the bearing or the teeth of the driver.

Make sure it is all the way in and fully seated in the hub shell.

3. If your driver is not in yet, you need to put that in. Put a good amount of grease on the threads of the driver that go inside the hub. These should be heavily greased; it's imperative for the clutch mechanism to work right. Also put a thin layer of grease on the driver where the outer driver bearing sits.

You can probably press it into the hub shell with your hand. If not, you can use a rubber mallet to tap it in. Try to hit the outside edge of the bearing in a circular manner around the edge. Try not to hammer the bearing in the center or the teeth.

4. I'm assuming that your inside driver bearing is still in the driver because it is a royal pain to get out in the first place. If not, again put a thin layer of grease on the outer edge of the inside driver bearing and tap it in with a rubber mallet or small hammer , making sure to hit only the outside edge of the bearing and not the inside of the bearing. Make sure it is all the way in and properly snug.

5. Take your clutch mechanism and put it inside the hub shell and thread it on the driver. Again the two finger and a rag method mentioned in the disassembly instructions works well for this. Once it is in, unthread it and take it back out.

Why? Remember I said to grease the threads on your driver well? Well, that is fine and good, but there is always a bit of grease that squeezes out. We want that stuff out of the hub as best we can. Take a rag or paper towel (paper towel works better) and fold it into sort of a circle and put it inside the hub shell, around the driver. You just have to kind of feel for this. Without being too aggressive, wipe the grease off the inside of the shell towards the driver. We don't want to wipe the driver clean of grease; we just want to make an effort to get excess grease off the inside of the hub shell. You don't have to be perfect.

6. Next you need to prepare your springs for putting in. The springs and clutch mechanism are the most important parts of this assembly. If those aren't right, it just wont work right, period once you get everything together.

To prepare the springs, bend the springs so that they are almost exactly straight except for the curls on the ends. The springs have to put tension on the axel for the clutch to work right. No tension or not enough and the freecoaster wont work right. You are basicly bending the springs to have the most tension possible.

DO NOT GREASE THE SPRINGS. The only grease the springs will need will get on them while putting them in. Simply put them inside the non driver side of the clutch. This will take some time to get them in there right. If you need to flex them a bit to get them in, go for it. DO ONE AT A TIME. Once they are in, they should hold each other in.

7. Next you put in the clutch mechanism. DO NOT GREASE THE CLUTCH MECHANISM. This takes the patience and precision of dismantling a bomb. You need to take the clutch and drop it into the hub shell very gently. You may need to actually "drop" it in a bit, depending on how big your fingers are. Once you have it in the hub shell use your finger on the end but not IN the end of the clutch and turn your driver with the other hand until it threads on to it and pulls it all the way in. If you're not careful you will knock your springs out and have to take it out and put them back in again and start over. Be patient.
8. Take your axel and figure out which way it goes into the hub. You get one shot at this, so you want to make sure you're putting it in the right way. If you mess it up, you have to pull the clutch and springs out again. Put the axel into the hub through the springs. Believe it or not, this works better if you do it quickly and with force. Once you have the axel started through the springs, quickly shove the axel in and it should get the springs over the ridge in the axel. DO NOT BACK THE AXEL BACK OUT.
9. Next your spacers and washers go in. To be honest, I have never put any more spacers in the hub than what it came with. Too many spacers and the hub can ghost ride because the clutch cant disengage enough. Too few spacers and the clutch can go too far when it disengages. Usually what the hub comes with is just right. (The one exception I can think of is the U-Free, where it seems like they miscalculated that space). To be honest, the clutch springs have more of an effect on the engage and gap in this hub. In fact what you describe as working for a while and then back to not working right probably has nothing to do with the spacers and everything to do with the springs.

That said, put a thin layer of grease on all sides of each of the washers and spacers and place them on the axel and down into the hub. At the very least, they should go into the hub in the order of washer, spacer, washer. If you have more spacers to put in, put them last after these stock spacers.
10. Put a thin layer of grease on the outside edge of the non-driver side bearing and put it on the axel. To get this bearing all the way in you might be able to push it in by hand. Likely though you will need to tap it in. On this one you will need to get a deep socket that is the same size as the bearings outer diameter. The socket needs to be long enough to not touch the end of the axel (the whole point is to give you something to hammer without worrying about hitting the end of the axel and messing that up.) Take your hammer or rubber mallet and hit the end of the socket to get the bearing into the hub. Make sure you get it all the way in.
11. Now you just need to get your "cones" and lock nuts back on. First you do the non driver side, but you will need to begin by putting your axel nuts on the driver side and lock them together.
12. Put the "cone" nut on the non driver side and tighten this one down with a wrench against the bearing. Then put on the lock nut and tighten it against the "cone" nut with a wrench. Just for good measure, take a wrench and tighten the "cone" agains the lock nut so that they are locked together. They should not move again.
13. Now you can remove your axel nuts off the driver side.
14. Now the last "cone" nut and lock nut. Thread on the driver side "cone" nut all the way to the bearing. This one I usually only put it on hand tight and not with a wrench. Then thread on the lock nut all the way to the "cone" nut. Once you have them both on, with two wrenches, hold the "cone" nut still and lock the lock nut against it.
15. It will probably not feel smooth. You wont know if you need to adjust things until you have it on the bike. Once you have it on the bike, it will not be really smooth either; you will get a couple of rotations out of the wheel if you spin it and that is normal. Remember that thing about friction?

If it feels just crazy tight, then loosen the cone just a touch on the drivers side, but not too much. If you make that too loose it effects your slack in the engage. Use your commons sense. If the wheel doesn't even turn a quarter turn when you spin it, then you know you need to loosen that driver side cone nut. But if it just feels a little rough compared to your front hub that will spin for three minutes, well that is normal.
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Offline Ike

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Re: Dialing in a Haro Turbine Freecoaster
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2016, 04:49:11 PM »
I know its an old post but if u or anyone can post pics that would b cool? Im trying to figure out what the internals look like so i can try n put one together.
Let the feelin flow.