Changing freehub bodies

[wizman]

Howdy everyone.

I have a 93 kona hahanna which i am converting to 10 speed (which i'm aware might be sacrilege) and it seems to be the exception to every rule. To do this I have to replace the 7spd HG shimano freehub body with an 8/9/10spd freehub body. I bought a freehub body that was explicitly 10spd and the interface splines between the hub and freehub body do not fit which was my first mistake. However looking at 8/9speed freehub bodies it seems that the interface splines of these freehub bodies match my hub, see pics for reference. I have seen dissenting opinions about the interchangeability of hubs and freehub bodies and was wondering if anyone can help me in discerning whether i can purchase a replacement 8/9spd freehub body and fit it to my (originally) 7 speed hub.

TLDR:
the hub that comes with the 93 hahanna is the shimano FH-HG20. Can I replace the freehub body with a Shimano Deore M510-525 Freehub Body for instance to increase the cassette range?

 

[2manyoranges]

Re:

Sorry to poop on the party but I think that there are many more things to play with than switching to 10 speed from 7 speed. If you choose your inner ring, middle and outer carefully you will get as good a gear range with less overlap than going 10spd and having to change mech, shifter, front mech and possibly chainset. And you would be running a thinner chain rather than a chunky and strong 7speed. And properly maintained, a 7 speed set up is crisp and exact - eg XT mechs.

But if you must....

Check your rear dropout spacing - could be 130 rather than 135. If 130 you could still put on a Shimano road hub but you would need to use a 105 rear mech to get the right cable pull. 8,9,10 freehub should go straight onto your existing hub re the inner splines. Weird if it doesn’t. Whenever I have done this (usually a 7 to 9 conversion) the freehubs just go straight on.

But your front chainset won’t really like the narrow chain, and the narrow chain won’t like the chainrings.

I would go for retaining 7 but really doing the gear tables and getting a great set of gears up front matched to rear.

 

[legrandefromage]

It takes about 20 minutes and two cans of cider to make an exage hubbed wheel into 8/9/10 speed compatible - I have reliable witnesses to prove it!

With just the wheel itself, remember you will have to redish the rim afterwards otherwise it will be too far over and you'll have to recentre the axle by playing with the spacers.

Then you can start worrying about what speed cassette and what rings etc.

As an aside, the chainset doesnt really matter as I've run 10spd chains on old DX and even older Stronglight triples without issue but if you are running 10spd, I'm sure that you'll be going for a 1x10 setup with a wider range cassette.

10spd with a 1980's Deore mech and 10spd cassette/ Shimano Dura-Ace bar-end indexed shifter

9spd with a 1980's Sugino triple, 1980's Shimano mechs and 9spd indexed shifters.

You will need a compatible 10spd shifter and rear mech for the Kona. SLX is pretty reasonable but if you look carefull, XT mechs come up pretty cheap.

Cassettes though - blimey, they can be very expensive!

 

[wizman]

Re:

Thanks for the swift replies all!

This bike has been a massive learning curve for me and aside from knowing i wanted to go 1x10 for reasons i couldn't quite justify to you now I have replaced rear mech with a saint derailleur hanging of a goatlink (Why!? i thought it looked cool :roll: ) and the ten speed shifter to go with it. cassette is a sunrace 11-42. aside from this most recent issue and making the chain far too short I think i'm well on my to a functioning bike which will be a relief after this odyssey as i'm desperate to actually ride it. But in conclusion what i'm hearing is that Shimano Deore M510-525 Freehub Body will work? is that right. and then from there it's a matter of re-dishing the wheels (i'll have to google that)

 

[2manyoranges]

Re:

Ah - 1x10 - that sounds sensible. Yes, probably a re-dish then...would be 10-20gbp at a good wheelbuilders’ (like Truewheels) - tricky to do if you don’t have a wheel jig - if not can be done in the frame and there are vids to do that....

 

[hamster]

You can swap freehub bodies (as LGF says) with the following health warning: it is easier to use an entire hub as a donor as Shimano repeatedly changed dustcover and cone dimensions over the years.

 

[Woz]

You can swap freehub bodies (as LGF says) with the following health warning: it is easier to use an entire hub as a donor as Shimano repeatedly changed dustcover and cone dimensions over the years.

Agree with this. Take the new hub, rip off the axle, cones, and freebody and then transplant the whole lot to your old wheel / hub. Then re-dish. Then worry about the new cassette, chain and possibly new chain ring.