Removal of a suntour xc pro cassette??

[ishaw]

I'm trying to help with a wanted post, but I don't want to part with an xc pro hub if it leaves me without the non-md version I need for a build. I have a wheelset built up and ready to go, but I need to know whether it is a non-md hub or not. The problem would be simple if there was no cassette attached but sadly there is. What's more confusing is that the cassette fitted has a very strange spacing between the last cog (lock ring) and the next one that is part of the main cluster - quite a lot larger than the rest of the cog spacing. There also looks to be a spacer between these two. To me it looks like someone has machined an md lock ring/cog down to a single, and used this configuration to make a 7 speed cassette from 8, but needed the spacer in order to lock it all on securely. I've got some 7 and 8 speed suntour cassettes that don't look anything like the one on there, adding further to my confusion and my suspicions.

In order to confirm the freehub, I need to get the cassette off, but have no idea how to, nor I suspect the correct tool for this job (I suspect I need a couple of chain whips). If it were shimano, I'd be fine, so anyone done this before and have any tips or can walk me through the process? I did take a trip to my lbs today, but I discovered they shut at 2 on Saturdays????

Cheers

 

[retrobate]

2 chain whips are required to remove the cassette.
It sounds like your cassette is secured to the cassette body via the second smallest sprocket and the smallest (11t) is screwed to the second smallest (12t).

The spacer issue could be the smallest sprocket has been screwed onto the next one the wrong way around (backwards).

 

[ishaw]

Thanks for the reply, I thought a pic or two may help show what I mean about the cassette not being quite right. As far as I was aware, the 8 speed MD version was the one that had the two cog lock ring, teh 7 speed the single cog lock ring. The pics and my eyes seem to think that the lock ring is single, but the spacing between the 6th and 7th cog is nothing like the spacing of the rest.

Thanks for the info on teh removal too - I've only one chain whip - is there a hack I can do with an old chain?

 

[FluffyChicken]

All MicroDrive read cassette use the 11/12 combined locking.

It's chainwhips and brute force you need.
Of course you can take the freehub body off with the cassette still on there and try other methods.
Basically one chainwhip is to hold the cassette in position as you would with a Shimano cassette and the other is to unscrew the bottom cog(s)


Yes that picture confirms it's a mess

 

[ishaw]

All MicroDrive read cassette use the 11/12 combined locking.

It's chainwhips and brute force you need.
Of course you can take the freehub body off with the cassette still on there and try other methods.
Basically one chainwhip is to hold the cassette in position as you would with a Shimano cassette and the other is to unscrew the bottom cog(s)


Yes that picture confirms it's a mess

Cheers fluffy - so the cassette is as I suspected some form of bodge then? If you were to have a stab, would you say underneath the bodge, it is a non-md freehub? I'm hoping so, but with the cassette fitted I can't easily tell.

 

[FluffyChicken]

What's the top tooth count (1) and the bottom tooth (6th) count ignoring the back to front* (7th, what that anyway)

It looks like a 24T which would leave the 6th as a 12T.
Either way who knows what is under there.
But the majority is a 7sp MD cassette..

On a 7 speed MD the 24T to 14T are bolted together, the 12T and 11T are one and they screw on as one as the 11T is too small.
But since it looks like a 12T is screwed on there and then another is somehow, who knows what is under there, I've never played with them like that. (splitting the 11T from the 12T somehow)

I did have some nice pictures of a 7sp MD from my new one, cannot find them now of course.

though you say you have one.
MicroDrive always have an 11T
(11-24T 7sp, 11-28 8sp. i.e and extra 28T cog)

Still they should screw off, you screw the 12T off, not the 11T)


EDIT, as I didn't see the picture showing the full bottom cog.

 

[drcarlos]

Don't worry about the removal as I think I have source the exact replacement I need. What I think you have there is 7's MD with the last cog fitted the wrong way around. It certainly looks like the cassette I just removed from my hub which was missing it's last cog. I did manage to remove the cassette from mine but I broke one chain whip before I decided to split the lock ring with a cutting disc.

Oh, I forgot to thank you for your efforts.

Carl.

 

[ishaw]

Cheers all.

Fluffy, the rest of the cassette has API stamped on all cogs so you could be right. As you seem clued up on such things, I was planning on running 7 speed on this build, and had assumed this was a non-md set up and have sourced cassettes accordingly (the pics are if the wheel as I got it so clueless as to how it is like it is). So, what is the difference between md and non-md? How compatible are they, if at all? Is there a 7s md cassette? I have a couple of nos 8s. Are 7s md and 8s md the same?

Drcarlos. If you do find yourself in need, my plan was to verify what's attached to the wheel in the pics, and if it was a non-md, I have another unlaced I was happy to part with.

 

[euphras_1]

Is that a rubber seal between axle and lockring? If so it´s definitely an MD freehub. I also think that someone opened the 11tooth-12tooth lockring by accident and then installed it the wrong way.

 

[retrobate]

Just having a mad moment here.
I recon 2 people with 1 chain whip a bike and a turbo trainer could remove the locking sprocket.

Wheel in bike.
Bike in turbo.
Chain on largest sprocket.
Person 1 on bike.
Chain whip in 12t sprocket with person 2 holding it (preferably with an extender tube to get their hands clear of the wheel and cranks).
Person 1 stomps on pedal - Bob is your mothers bro.