Sachs Seven Speed Freewheel & Bearing Cages

_I was sent this Sachs 7 Speed Freewheel recently and was surprised to find that the internal bearings are held in place by plastic cages.  I'd never seen this in the Shimano, Suntour, Regina or Atom freewheels I had serviced.  As you can see there about 2/3rds less bearings in this system. 

While I was able to clean and service the bearings and cages, I wonder if Sachs meant for the bearings and cages to be replaced?  It would seem the sensible thing to do since it was quite a tedious process to scrape the old, plaster-like, grease from the cages and bearings.

As can be seen, the bearings are offset in the cages towards the center.  This insures proper contact with the races. 

This particular freewheel used both threaded and splined cogs in order to build it to the body.

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