I have Trek 4300 from year 2000 with the original wheelset which seems had never been serviced. I decided to service the whole thing but found problems with the freehub removal.
It needs the 12 mm Allen key to be inserted from the non-drive side. Got it, but could only move it a little bit clockwise, for like 2 or 3 mm. I noticed that the freehub started to play, but I couldn’t unscrew it any further. It just stopped. Also now I can’t screw it in the other direction.
So… the question is what’s wrong with it. Does it need to be unscrewed ccw? If so, why the freehub started to play after unscrewing it cw? Or maybe it’s seized and I need the power tool to do it?
Any advice would be highly appreciated.
by mark_arbatsky
2 Comments
I don’t know exactly what hub you have, but it looks like Shimano, and by my recollection, they’re all threaded standard righty-tighty/lefty-loosey.
Are you sure it’s 12mm, though? Plenty of Shimano freehubs are 13mm, which could explain the slop. You might feel it engaging before the tool looses its bite. The best method for freehub removal IMO is to put the Allen key in a vise and turn the wheel like you’re driving a bus.
I’ll also add that there’s usually very little reason to remove a *working* freehub. It’s not typically a serviceable part in any meaningful way, and to the extent that it is, you can just drip some lube in from the top and have basically the same effect as removing the unit, popping the seal and applying lube.
Note: I’m an amateur and I may have different parts than you do.
I just removed a shimano freehub yesterday. A few times, as I’m a dumass and was doing it for the first time. It was typical “clockwise to tighten, counter clockwise to loosen”. It required 10mm hex key inserted from hub side (not the one on your picture). It required reasonable amount of force, a lot but nothing near your huge arm in pic 🙂
Before I did that I even watched several YT videos on the topic, and guys even said clearly to turn it *the other* way, but they clearly on video didn’t follow their own advise 😀 Maybe there are very different hubs, I don’t know.
My freewheel hub was Y30V98050, theoretically matching those wheel hubs: FH-TX800, FH-RM30, FH-RM33, FH-RM60, FH-RM65.