Shimano dura ace freehub rattle has broken my heart.

[Jockieboy]

Hi,<br />
I was servicing my rear hub yesterday. After employing the 'putting ones ear to the saddle when spinning the rear wheel' technique I learnt from this resourceful site, some wear/grinding was revealed to be taking place.<br />
Whilst dismantling the rear hub I decided to take the freehub off and flush it with the pot of kerosene I had handy.<br />
Once flushed I noticed that the freehub rattled a little when shaken. I've replaced a cheap freehub before that exhibited such a rattle. In this case I'm a little wary of binning this freehub for the two following reasons; one, because it's a titanium Shimano dura-ace 7700 freehub and they're really expensive; two, because I was not experiencing any stiffness or slippage when it was in use.<br />
What should I do? Dry it, lube it, stick it back in and pretend I imagined it? Open it and attempt a (not highly recommended) repair? Replace it with a new one? OR throw in the towel, sell the bike and take up coachpotatoing?
G.

[DaveM]

Dry it, lube it, and stick it back in. Use a nice heavy oil. Make sure you've gotten all the kerosene out before hand or it will dissolved the oil. Try to blow some air through it if possible.
Flushing freehubs is generally a bad idea. They are pretty well sealed and don't need to be relubed as often as wheel bearings. And it is very hard to flush and then remove all the solvent. The only time I'd recommend this is if the wheel was exposed to excess water (winter riding, immersion, etc.)

[teach-me]

In my humble opinion shimano freehubs are never meant to be lubed, cleaned or disassembled. To lube the ball bearings I use a bike specific grease such as Finish Line Teflon or Park. Auto grease is designed for much higher temps and is much more viscous then a bike lube because it supports higher loads and is usually near the braking mechanism that can produce very high temps. This causes a bike wheel to roll with greater resistance when it is used. I prefer cartridge bearings myself . No bearing preload or lubing to worry about. easy to replace and they don,t destroy expensive hubs.

[Surly LHT]

sell the bike and take up coach potatoing if I was you no JK. I would take it off clean it then oil it good and see if you still hear the same sound with it. If you do hear it again then I would replace it. I would not use grease in it at all just heavy oil.

[Gromit]

You can take apart shimano freehubs but its not recommended. I would never try to lube up a high end shimano freehub without just cause, they are very well sealed. I have dismantled them using needle nose pliers on the inner cup and unscrewed it, careful as small ball bearings fall out. Don't grease the pawl/ratchet, just oil, small amount of grease on bb's is ok as you need them to stay in place.

[Bill]

Here is a neat little gadget I found a while back just for freehubs.... http://www.morningstartools.com/freehub_buddy1.html

OR
Go by these instructions ....
http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=45

Either way I would not give up cycling for being a coach potato.