What they don’t tell you when replacing a freewheel

[Chopperbill]

I ordered a 11t freewheel before my RadRover was delivered. Road it once before I started to install it. Noticeable “hamster” effect. Took wheel off and low and behold the axle nut and washers won’t slide over the wire harness connector. Park tool won’t either. I could have drilled out the tool to go over the connector but no way was it going to go over the nut. Being new on here I couldn’t find a post or a video on the net. All I saw is how easy it was. Only possible way I could see was to take the freewheel apart to unscrew the hub with a pipe wrench. I did that without ruining the hub and collected all the parts in a magnetic bowl so I could put back together. After install I went for a ride. Big difference,
Was thinking this morning I might have been able to use a punch in the hole of the left hand thread of the bearing holder and drove it backwards. Not sure that would have worked because it took a lot of pressure on the pipe wrench to remove the hub. Going to cut a slice in the Park tool to slip it over the wire harness for when I have to do it again.

 

[indianajo]

The hall effect sensor connector comes off the wire harness off the two kits I've bought pretty easily. I pushed the pin tangs in with a pick, pushed the pins out backwards. Make a drawing of the back of the connector first by color to get back together correctly. I did, twice. Some pins I had to rebend the tang a little bit to get it to bite.
I put a second nut on my hub motor axles to avoid it slipping in the frame and binding up the wheel: which it did the first time I rode it. Counter rotated nuts don't back off. Nuts would not clear the connector.

 

[MarkF]

Bolton bikes has some good videos on how to do some of this stuff.
https://boltonebikes.com/pages/videos

 

[harryS]

The above topic has been covered by other RAD owners.

RAD bikes use a molded connector with the larger female plug on the motor end. This will not go thru a 12mm axle nut. Other manufacturers put the smaller diameter male plug on the motor side and that easily goes thru a 12mm x1.25 mm nut. Here's a pic of the relevant connector. Bafang and other manufacturers have the smaller male plug coming out of the motor.

I've read that some Rad motors don't use or have all 9 pins either.



DIY lits usually come with bellet connectors and a six position plastic retangular plug. They bullets go thru the nut, and you can slip out the pins from the plastic connector like Indianjo sez, pass threm thru and then reassemble.