Free hub body removal help

bobbydigital

I bought some wheels recently, put them on my bike but the free hub slips when pedaling, it's fine on the lower gears but the higher ones, not at all.

So I thought I'd remove it but some complete numpty has pretty much rounded half of the hex bolt inside the freehub, it's an 11mm but my 11mm will not grip it, there's no chance for an allen key to work in there now.

I was wondering, if there's a special way to no remove it?

iwilldoit

Did the cassette come with the wheels, as it might be the chain to cassette that's slipping.

I've used a 7/16 allen key worked fine.

bobbydigital

I've swapped the cassette over to a new one along with a new chain I had.

I filed down a 12mm allen key to 11.3 which fits nicely but just slips as soon as I apply pressure.

I was hoping if I put the freehub body in a vise, crushed it so it couldn't spin, then spun the wheel that it would all undo? But don't have a vise at this point, so not sure if it's worth buying one to find out. I doubt it would work as the "pawls" would stop it from turning.

The Rookie

So your allen key doesn't fit nicely (or it wouldn't slip) and has now damaged the bolt head? Your best bet is to try and drive a torx bit into the remains of the bolt to remove it. The bolt was probably imperial.

The freehub doesn't unscrew, the bolt holding it in place does, you're thinking of an old freewheel which is screw on.

Your first post is illogical, the lower gears (bigger sprockets) apply more torque and are more likely to slip than in the higher gears (smaller sprockets).

bobbydigital

You are correct, for some reason I get confused with the highest and lowest gears and think of them opposite to what they actually are, I think it's because of where they are physically on the bike.

My 11mm allen key slotted in but had some tiny play when moving it, it won't grip the bolt so I didn't push it too hard, I tried twice, but no luck and on inspection of the bolt head, I saw that it seems someone else had already had a go and done quite some damage as one side of the bolt is totally smooth.

I've tried a T55 torx which is too small but the T60 is too big. Ebay sellers for you, so much of the bike stuff has hidden problems from there.