FastJake

Title is pretty much it. Can I use a titanium freehub off a "normal" Dura Ace/XTR hub and put it on a different Shimano hub? I've done plenty of body swaps between 7S and 8/9/10S but I wasn't sure if the titanium freehubs used a different attachment. I'm not talking about the ones from the pre-built wheelsets but just a standard DA7700 hub for example.

Thanks.

HillRider

The Ti freehub body on my DA7700 rear hub fastens with exactly the same hollow 10 mm hex bolt as all other Shimano hubs I've worked on. While the cones and seals may differ, the body seems interchangeable with most others.

zukahn1 

I have mixed matched Shimano 7000 series freehubs on 7000 series hube bodies and it seemed to work just fine.

Chris_W

I tried to take the ti' body from a Dura Ace C24 7950 wheel and mount it on a RS80 C50 wheel and it definitely wouldn't work, IIRC they had different diameter axles. These were hubs on Shimano's fully-assembled wheelsets; you may have more luck switching bodies between their stand-alone hubs.

HillRider

Isn't the 7950 wheel 11-speed? Is the RS80 10-speed? Perhaps that is another mis-match.

FastJake

Thanks. I was thinking of taking a DA7700 (or whatever I can find) Ti freehub and putting it on a 6402 hub. I knew the prebuilt wheelsets used different rear hubs but wasn't sure about the normal hubs.

I don't think so. I have a DA7900 C50 carbon tubular wheelset, it's 8/9/10 speed. And although I didn't pull the FH body off it uses a significantly different loose ball bearing arrangement.

davidad

I didn't like the T. freehub and replaced with an Ultegra 9sp. It works fine.

HillRider

Hmmm, I wonder why not? I have over 50,000 miles on a DA7700 hub and the Ti freehub body is still in great shape.

FastJake

Well, I just won a best offer for one on ebay. I'll report back on how it works, and how many grams it saves.

Kimmo

You got just the cassette body? What's one of those worth?

...Edit: never mind, I had a look. I won't be buying one in a hurry : /

FastJake

The Ultegra 6400 hub plus the cassette body was cheaper than I could find a used DA hub for, so I'll give it a try. It's mostly an experiment really to see if I can hot rod this wheel. If successful I'll be able to retrofit wheels that are already built up without tearing them apart and replacing the whole hub.

The hub on my 6400 was 7S anyway and that wouldn't do, so this is my excuse.

davidad

I take mine apart and replace the spring with a heavier piano wire one. It allows me to use a Freehub Buddy to grease the freehub. The Ti FH has the spring mounted inboard and is not as effective as the older style.
The left side plastic shield wore enough that I had to epoxy it in. shimano no longer makes the part. I have over 70k miles on the hub.
I overhaul mine every 2500 miles.

HillRider

That sounds like a lot more work than the hub and freehub body need. I overhaul the hubs every 6000 or so miles and just lube the freehub body with TriFlow and so far it has held up just fine. I've never seen any advantage to grease in a freehub or freewheel.

ThermionicScott 

At the risk of encouraging thread drift, do the grease and heavier spring increase freehub drag at all? I've noticed after flushing (with mineral spirits) and relubing freehub bodies with chainsaw oil (30W is marked on the container) that the freewheeling becomes very quiet, but they don't spin as freely as when they were dry.

davidad

At first, but it smooth's out after a few hundred miles. Drag is not important in a freewheel because you aren't coasting that much. If you are going by finger feel you are worrying about a trifling amount of drag.

ThermionicScott 

Excellent, thanks.

FastJake

Well, I got screwed on the one I bought. Or I screwed myself, not sure which yet. Here's a link to the auction I won: https://www.ebay.com/itm/370979219389...84.m1497.l2649

The freehub arrived today. It uses a different spline pattern (more splines) and a significantly larger fixing bolt, roughly 14mm. I'm certain there's no way this will work on any normal Shimano hub, but looking at the tech docs I can't tell if the ad had the wrong description or not. Any help?

I'm not sure whether I should return the hub or just try and resell it. I definitely can't use it.

AnkleWork

So, how many grams would it save?

FastJake

Compared to a 7-speed freehub body, 25g. I didn't have an 8/9/10-speed body handy to measure so the savings will be a bit more. Still not nearly what I was hoping for, and since it won't even work with the freehub I bought I don't think I'll bother messing with this in the future...