Free wheel with rolling bodies and method for manufacturing such a free wheel

A method for manufacturing a free wheel having an inner ring, an outer ring, a plurality of rolling bodies each positioned in an annular space (E) arranged radially between the inner and outer rings, a cage for keeping the rolling bodies in position in the annular space, the cage defining individual receiving housings for the rolling bodies, elastic retaining members for keeping the rolling bodies in their housings, wherein each elastic member provides at least two tongues that can come into contact with two rolling bodies positioned in two adjacent housings of the cage, the tongues of two elastic members disposed on either side of a housing delimit an opening there-between through which a rolling body rolls on a track of a first ring from among the inner and outer rings, the width of the opening, measured in an orthoradial direction with respect to a relative axis (X160) of rotation of the inner and outer rings, has a value smaller than that of the diameter (D20) of the rolling bodies, and wherein each elastic member having two first tongues able to come into contact with a rolling body positioned in a first housing disposed on a first side of the elastic member and two second tongues able to come into contact with a rolling body positioned in a second housing situated on a second side of the elastic member, opposite the first side, the first tongues are offset relative to one another and the second tongues are offset relative to one another, along the axis of rotation (X160), and the two first tongues are arranged on an elastically deformable tab and able to exert, on a rolling body, an orthoradial force (E30) returning that body toward a position corresponding to a blocked configuration of the free wheel, comprising the steps of:

• a) arranging, flat, a blank of the cage formed by an elongated strip that defines housings for receiving the rolling bodies, juxtaposed in a longitudinal direction (X10) of the blank and provided, at its ends, with attaching means for attaching its two ends together,
• b) installing a rolling body in each housing,
• c) placing an elastic retaining member between two adjacent housings, for each pair of two adjacent housings, with the two tongues of the retaining member each engaged in a housing,
• d) closing the blank on itself by bending (F1, F2) it in a direction perpendicular to its longitudinal direction (X10) and engaging its attaching means, and
• e) mounting the cage equipped with the rolling bodies and elastic retaining members between the inner ring and the outer ring of the free wheel.