Q100-CST LUBRICATION

Hello,
I wore out my free hub on my commuter bike and bought a new Q100-cst to replace it. Is there a specific lube I should use? Let me explain. The free hub has three ratcheting pawls held proud by a spring. These pawls grip the outer casing of the Q100 ( really bad design) and run free. The original casing came with no lube, so the pawls were super noisy. I put in some thick gear oil and it work very well. Now I think there may be a better lube for this application. Possibly one that would not wear out the casing?? Thanks for your help, love this forum.

You only need to give them an occasional squirt with oil to stop them from going rusty. Any oil should be OK, but I guess gear oil will stay there longer.

I was wondering about that too. I used a light coating of high temp silicone disk brake quite. Its is not too thick when heated up and not quite as slippery as synthetic or Teflon gear lubes.

I think a light bike based bike lube like Tri-Flow would be too slipery as it has Teflon. 3-in-1 machine oil would probably be okay.

Whatever you use, you don't want too much. I made the mistake of using a liberal dose of Fluid-Film, and I was getting clutch slippage after.

Upgrading clutch springs:

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=88397

edavinci said:

Hello,
I wore out my free hub on my commuter bike and bought a new Q100-cst to replace it. Is there a specific lube I should use? Let me explain. The free hub has three ratcheting pawls held proud by a spring. These pawls grip the outer casing of the Q100 ( really bad design) and run free. The original casing came with no lube, so the pawls were super noisy. I put in some thick gear oil and it work very well. Now I think there may be a better lube for this application. Possibly one that would not wear out the casing?? Thanks for your help, love this forum.

Click to expand...

What you are describing is the Ramp and Roller( Sprag) clutch, which is a trouble free design that is used in many applications for many years. As stated above, the clutch only needs a lite coat of oil to prevent rusting.
The ratcheting noise you are describing is the "free hub" mechanism inside(at the base) the cassette mounting spline. There has been two styles used w/ the Q100C. The early, removable type, used on the Silver motors and the non-removable type used in the later, black, motors. W/ the removable type, it is a simple matter to pack in some Lithium "white" grease. W/ the non-removable type, the same grease can be sprayed in with a aerosol from the end.
This is what I do and my Q100C free-wheels noiselessly.

I think the white lithium grease is a good choice too. I probably would have used that if I had some in stock.