Sachs Maillard freewheel spacer issue

[Balaphuel]

I bought an 8 speed freewheel from ebay, but noticed when fitted on the bike that the small sprocket was too close to the dropout. I measured it against another 8 speed Maillard freewheel which I know works fine, sure enough the spacing is wrong. It looks to me like it has 7 speed spacing. I took it apart, the plastic spacers are 3.2mm wide whereas the other freewheel spacers are 2.9mm & 2.8mm wide.

Does anyone know where I can get my hands on -
1x I.D 50mm 2.9mm spacer
3x I.D 44mm 2.8mm spacers

Obviously the 3x small sprockets can't be adjusted as they have built-in spacers, but I reckon if I change the plastic spacers then it should be enough get the freewheel working nicely with shimano 8 speed index. Also not a big deal if I can't use the smallest sprocket.

Cheers.

 

[pigman]

What colour are the spacers you have?
I seem to remember red was 5/6 speed, green was 7 speed

 

[DrDaveTampa]

I think those Sachs freewheels are color coded ... sounds like yours might be campy (or campy-ish) spacing

Are ya using index shifters? If so are we sure that's gonna work? Wonder if it might not be easier in the long run to sell yours on ebay and get the right one ...

If you have a friction shifter lying around, and are really attached to that freewheel, do you think maybe removing a couple mm of axle spacers might do the trick?

Pastor Bob knows it all and is literally the nicest dude in the world, if you axt him I'll bet he would be happy to answer

 

[Balaphuel]

The spacers are all brown in colour.

I have quite a few other 8 speed maillard freewheels from back in the day, they all have black spacers & they all work great on a Shimano 8 speed index setup. I rode the Velo Retro ride on this problematic freewheel a few weeks back using 8 speed index downtube shifters, it worked ok, but not perfectly due to the spacing. My thinking is that if I change the brown spacers then that should be enough to make indexing work nicely with a bit of fine tuning. All my other maillard freewheels are 13-20T, but I wanted an easy life in the hills . This new one is a 13-24T. I'd rather source replacement spacers than steal them from my old freewheels as they are all in good condition.

 

[Balaphuel]

I'm not able to move axle spacers around because its a mavic hub, 130mm alloy axle with no spacers.

 

[dbwheels]

The spacers are all brown in colour.

Brown = Campagnolo 8 sp spacing (overall width 36.8mm)
Black = Shimano 8sp spacing (overall width 35.4mm)

 

[pigman]

Brown = Campagnolo 8 sp spacing (overall width 36.8mm)
Black = Shimano 8sp spacing (overall width 35.4mm)

And campag 8 spacing is the same as Shimano 7 spd

 

[Balaphuel]

Thanks for the colour coding info I didn't know that. So I'm on the lookout for black spacers. If anyone has an old worn out maillard 8 freewheel with black spacers I'd be happy to give you a couple of pounds for it.