American Classic Shimano shell -pawls skipping

[wtex]

I got a great pair of 2013 era AmClassic wheels from Snowcrash originally with the Campy shell, works great.
I picked up a used, but seems fine Shimano shell, put it on with the silver and black spacers. I think I've got the pre-load pretty tight on the lock nut.
And after half a mile, the cassette starts to spin/disengage. Not sure if I've installed something incorrectly, or if the Shimano shell could be bad:
1. is there a way to tell if the shell or pawls are bad when the shell is removed from the hub? is there any way to test it?
2. Should I have any grease on where the shell pawls are? could grease freeze the pawls?

Chad

[oldpotatoe]

I got a great pair of 2013 era AmClassic wheels from Snowcrash originally with the Campy shell, works great.
I picked up a used, but seems fine Shimano shell, put it on with the silver and black spacers. I think I've got the pre-load pretty tight on the lock nut.
And after half a mile, the cassette starts to spin/disengage. Not sure if I've installed something incorrectly, or if the Shimano shell could be bad:
1. is there a way to tell if the shell or pawls are bad when the shell is removed from the hub? is there any way to test it?
2. Should I have any grease on where the shell pawls are? could grease freeze the pawls?

Chad

Here's a how to web page.

https://amclassic.com/manual-downloads

[kramnnim]

check the little spring on the freehub body, it is what pushes the cam plate (?) that moves the pawls. I assume that spring is not engaging. There was a recall at some point on the cam plate?

[merlinmurph]

2. Should I have any grease on where the shell pawls are? could grease freeze the pawls?

Chad


No grease!!!!!!

I made that mistake back in the early 90s. Grease just gums up the pawls preventing them from engaging.

[Velocipede]

I got a great pair of 2013 era AmClassic wheels from Snowcrash originally with the Campy shell, works great.
I picked up a used, but seems fine Shimano shell, put it on with the silver and black spacers. I think I've got the pre-load pretty tight on the lock nut.
And after half a mile, the cassette starts to spin/disengage. Not sure if I've installed something incorrectly, or if the Shimano shell could be bad:
1. is there a way to tell if the shell or pawls are bad when the shell is removed from the hub? is there any way to test it? Yes. If the gold freehub body teeth are silver, the teeth are damaged. If you post a picture I can say for sure.
2. Should I have any grease on where the shell pawls are? could grease freeze the pawls? Yes. There needs to be grease on the cam plate and pawls. We used a very light waterproof grease when I worked there. because the cam plate is not activated like a regular spring driven pawl system, it won't gum it up due to grease being added. I've packed them super full and tried them. They will still activate.

Chad

The only reasons it would slip are the following:
~teeth on freehub body damaged.
~Cam plate not engaging- could be due to the loop spring in the freehub body. Take a small flat blade and pit it between the spring and the body and gentle pull it out so it sticks out slightly.
~pawls not being full seated in the hub shell- doubtful tho because the hub wouldn't spin if they weren't.

If you take a good side picture and a good overhead picture I can tell you what's up with it. If you put it together properly, the last step being the seal, you'll see the workings of the hub. You'll be able to see what's wrong. It's pretty unique system. It has its flaws for sure. But it's pretty simple to maintain. I used to do dozens of hubs a day when working on them.