freehub body repair or replace?

[Tesseractoid]

Hiya, seems I’ve got a rumbly grumpy free hub body on my DX FH-M560 hub, took it off, serviced the hub, bearings, grease, good old cleanup… but couldn’t see how to open the free hub body and it’s making quite a racket, are peeps somehow fitting new bearings in these or just replacing the body, If so what’s a modern part that’ll fit? Cheers!

 

[hamster]

It's awfully tricky - you need to make a special tool to open it up, after which there are a zillion tiny ball bearings.
It's easiest to dismantle the hub, undo the freehub body (10mm Allen Key down the inside from the right), and refit a new one.
SJS Cycles carry them, or buy an old 7s hub and cannibalise it.
Shimano played lots of games changing the dust seal designs, so the final bit is to prise out the dust seal from your existing body and switch it onto the new one, then refit using your existing cones etc.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shimano-...044&customid=27a47c01f3901f0696951b0fc613d7c1

 

[minor_LEGEND]

Replace, they are not serviceable. You should be able to source a replacement from a similar hub of that era.
I remember when mine went on a DX hub back in the day, it stuck open & nearly caused me quite an injury on my way to school one morning.

 

[Tesseractoid]

Cheers guys, pinched the freehub body from a decent exage wheel I had in the shed. Re used the dx dust cap and cone. Seems to have worked!

 

[CrossFred1978]

I've rejuvenated a few by flushing with gt85 and leaving to soak in a tub of gearbox oil. Higher viscosity the better.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Often by the time a shimamo freehub body is grumbling, the cups and cones are also tired, so it's frequently not worth attempting a repair unless the part can't be replaced

But identifying the replacement is hard if you can't see it first. Shimano changed the freehub codes far more frequently than they changed the design

 

[Cloverleaf]

I've rejuvenated a few by flushing with gt85 and leaving to soak in a tub of gearbox oil. Higher viscosity the better.

Hot grease and spray grease can also work.

 

[benjabbi]

I used to have a tool called a Morningstar freehub buddy, it allowed you to pump fresh grease through a Shimano freehub, pushing the old dirty stuff out the back, obviously no good if it's already dead but helped prolong the inevitable and only took a couple of extra minutes on a hub service. My old boss threw it out cos he didn't know what it was! I was not best pleased and I've not seen one since.

 

[trailstar82]

I used to have a tool called a Morningstar freehub buddy, it allowed you to pump fresh grease through a Shimano freehub, pushing the old dirty stuff out the back, obviously no good if it's already dead but helped prolong the inevitable and only took a couple of extra minutes on a hub service. My old boss threw it out cos he didn't know what it was! I was not best pleased and I've not seen one since.

I was not expecting to stumble across this story when researching the freehub buddy

https://www.mtbr.com/threads/toolma...ead-in-booby-trapped-california-home.1169279/

 

[Tootyred]

I just service them....bit fiddly, but there is nothing complex in there. You can buy a tool on ebay to open them or i just made mine our of a crap 21mm socket.

Only advice is don't go mad with the grease in there and use a thin (aka friction elimination) grease. I use zx1 for such purposes.

But then im retired and I've got the time for such fiddling about