The Smell of a Cleaned Chain

It may smell like a hobo who has not bathed in 6 months, but it's not that. Rather, it is the smell of gear oil and cleaning a chain on the New World project...

I got to spend a couple of recent evenings working on the men's Schwinn New World bicycle. The basic bottom bracket components are all cleaned up (previous entry), so now it's time to start working on that heavily caked and frozen chain. I did not see rust on the chain, just a ton of caked and dirty grease gunk.

I looked through my shelves and found some nice stuff for the job. I find the best way of attacking a chain is to soak it. If the chain is very rusty, I might degrease and soak in Oxalic Acid. However, if the chain is not rusty, then sometimes an industrial strength de-greasing/de-gunking is needed.

Here is what I mustered:

-Kroil and/or Liquid Wrench to preliminarily loosen the chain and soften the gunk
-A paper or plastic bowl (I used 3 paper bowls kept together as a stack for this)
-Plenty of clean gear oil
-Some rags
-Rubber gloves

First, I sprayed some Kroil and Liquid Wrench into the chain's joints to loosen it up. I want to be able to fit the chain into the bowl, which means lots of bending. The chain was initially pretty frozen up, so the very these very thin penetrating oils help to loosen it up for that.


Second, I place the chain the bowl of gear oil for 2-3 days. What I'm using is 80W-90 gear oil from a local autoparts store. This particular oil is very good at wicking out the gunk from the small spaces of the chain. The oil is meant to keep car gear surfaces clean and lubricated. In this case though, we want a cleaned and lubricated chain. The soak length helps to break down the grease and wick it out from the small spots. You could feasibly soak it longer, but by the end of 2 days, my oil was pretty dity. The gear oil goes into the bowl an nice amber color, and comes out looking like... well... used oil. There really as a lot of junk on this chain.

Remember to wear gloves when dealing with this oil. This gear oil STINKS. It smells like very, very intense body odor. If you get it on you, you will smell like the body odor. If you go into public, people will think you have body odor. They won't buy the gear oil explanation, unless they happen to be car mechanics.

An example of the used oil is below- remember this stuff was that nice clean amber color that oil often is, when it came out of the bottle. All that darkness is crap from the chain.

Third, after soaking begin to rub the chain down with the rag. Work the chain along in your hands, moving each link on the rag and giving them a little flex to loosen them up. If the rag becomes cruddy, get another rag. It may take several. You should eventually begin to feel the chain loosening up and the gunk should be disappearing. If you have too much gunk, repeat the process until the chain is ready.

When you are finally done, wipe the chain down with a clean rag and remove as much excess oil as you can. This oil will attract dirt, so you want to have as clean a chain as possible. Finally, once your gears are cleaned too, hook up the chain and spin the mechanism. Do this outside and don't spray yourself. The oil will be flung off like a wet dog shaking off water. Run the rag along the chain again as you spin the mechanism. Once satisfied, your chain should be much cleaner and more pliable.

As you can see below, it looks improved, though I still have to clean up the rear cog and the wheels.

Schwinn New World: Cleaning Up One Piece Cranks

One of my least favorite jobs is cleaning out a bottom bracket, along with getting the caked grease off the area around the bottom bracket. Often, you get old grease, sand, and assorted junk on everything, including you. Here is how I do it.

First, I remove the bottom bracket assembly. It's pretty basic- everything on the non-drive side of the bike should be reverse threaded (turn clockwise to loosen on that side). I heat the nuts and bearing races on the non-drive side with a small butane lighter-type torch (not the big one, the little precise one) and wick some kroil into the threads on the crank. I then take a good adjustable wrench and begin disassembly. Below is my wrench of choice for these: a large mouth Channel Lock brand with a rubber handle. These seem to have wider mouths compared to comparably sized wrenches, which is extremely helpful with one piece cranks and larger headset nuts.

After disassembling, I hit everything with a degreaser/cleaner. I like 409 cleaner for this. I scrub with bronze wool. I avoid steel wool because I like the softer, coarser bronze wool much better. I actually don't use steel wool on anything bike-related, come to think of it. I stick to bronze.

I also take the components to the bearings/nuts/races/spacers and soak them in a cup of 409. I use a string to keep them in the order they go on the bike, as well as keep them together. I clean them together and do not separate the string until I'm ready to reassemble later. This helps keep everything in order. After finishing the chain ring, it looks nice and clean, as shown below. This is a skip tooth Schwinn chain ring.

Next, move on to the crank arms. Degrease with the bronze wool and 409, then hit them with bronze wool and WD40 to remove the rust. You can alternatively soak in Oxalic Acid for rust removal. You have to degrease first either way. I did these with the bronze wool since I didn't want to mix up a soak just for this part tonight. As you see below, it came out just fine.

Then I head back to the frame and begin working on the bottom bracket cups. For these, I use a paper towel soaked in 409. I do NOT use bronze wool, steel wool or anything particularly abrasive. It is very important not to score the inner surfaces of the cups up, since their smoothness will help ensure smooth pedaling. I use a paper towel and hard work instead. It comes out nice and clean.

Next, I hit up the outside of the bottom bracket region. This particular bike was caked in old grease and sand mixed up. They formed a tar-like substance. I used a Dremel cleaning brush to remove the caked substance. The picture above clearly shows that external cake, but below you see it's just about gone.

Now, it's back to those soaking vitals. Pull them out and wipe them down. Even tough grease gives way with a soaking and wipe down. I use a soft cloth for this usually, but tonight I'm down to paper towels. Paper towels annoyingly tend to leave little pieces to pick out of the bearing cages. The soft cloth is better.

Once they are clean, I liberally coat them in WD40 to displace the 409, and let them soak in WD 40 overnight in the cup. This keeps out the moisture. When I'm ready to reassemble, I'll use a good quality lithium grease on these. 

 Here you see a little progress shot- you can start to see it, but it still has a ways to go.

Early Schwinn Bicycle Hand Brake Calipers

Many people are familiar with Schwinn lightweight bicycles and their handbrakes. In the postwar period millions of lightweights were made, ranging from early postwar New World roadsters, to Paramounts, to the bike book era 10 speeds. A variety of different brake caliper configurations were present.

Many vintage bike enthusiasts are aware of the "Schwinn Approved" brakes, often the ones made in West Germany. However, fewer are familiar with the "Schwinn Built" flat arm calipers that say "Made in USA" and are on the early postwar bikes.

The Schwinn New World I worked on this weekend is just such a bike. This weekend I had a little time and spent some of it cleaning grease and rust off of the calipers, while re-lubricating them for use when the bike is finally ready to go.

The above brake is the assembled item off the bike. It is basically dirty, though a little surface rust was present. The system used in these early Schwinn Built calipers is a guide and pinch bolt system with a side pull. A central wire spring and axle system binds the whole thing together.

Above we see the caliper taken apart to a level that allows cleaning.

 1. Remove the brake axle nut (B) and remove the caliper from the bicycle by sliding the axle (A) out of the hole in the frame. Remove the brake pads (K) from the arms (H and I). Use Kano Kroil and a small torch if need be. I had to use Kroil and heat on these.

2. Slide the the axle (A) out of the unit. You may separate the spacer on the axle to clean the surfaces of the axle and the spacer. Be sure to keep the spacer and axle together so you don't lose the spacer.

3. Squeeze the wire spring attached to the spring guide (C and D). This releases some tension on the arms (H and I) and allows you slide the spring off of the arms to separate it. Remove the spring from the assembly. Clean the spring of gunk/grease/rust.

4. Separate the two caliper arms (H and I) by sliding out the axle holder (E). Beware of the rubber washer (F). The rubber washer may have petrified and be easily broken. If broken, replace with a similar O-ring. I do not recommend using a metal spacer in lieu of the rubber washer (F), but rather a similar plastic or rubber ring. Clean the axle holder (E) of any junk or debris.You should also be able to separate the arms.

5. Clean the caliper arms. If you wish to disassmble the cable hosing holder (G) and pinch bolt (J) assemblies, you can do so. Again, remove debris and rust. I suggest reassembling G and J because it's easy to lose the parts. After cleaning them, I put them right back on to their respective caliper arms.

6. Once cleaned, apply grease to moving/sliding joints and quality light oil to pivoting joints and screw threads. You may also apply anti-seize like shotgun choke tube lube to screw threads. Then reassemble the caliper in the opposite order you took it apart, as outlined above.

Note- the brake pads can be refreshed by sliding the rubber blocks out of the holders and replacing with similar new pads. Take a pad with you to the shop, or measure the rubber pad to make sure you get a suitable substitute that will fit. Once cleaned and reassembled, re-attach to the bike.