Originally Posted by
rpenmanparker
I do it all the time. Not on my own wheels but on ones I am fixing for friends and the occasional wheel customer. You just have to wiggle it off little by little. Sometimes in a really bad case you have to file the freehub in front of each cog. And once I had to put ice on the aluminum to shrink it relative to the steel cogs. If you don't wait so long to do it, it isn't such a problem. But if you file the splines flat again, you can ride that freehub for a long, long time. Remove it every few months and file it flat so the cassette doesn't get stuck again. I don't have the problem anymore personally because I use SRAM Red cassettes which don't damage aluminum freehubs.
Clearly, you've never dealt with a case nearly as severe as the one I faced. To try to "wiggle" the cassette did nothing. Prying with a screwdriver, nothing. Tapping with a hammer, nope. It was ON THERE. I've got very long arms, am fairly strong and have long tools for leverage. It seemed as if it was welded into place. I tried several suggestions from very experienced mechanics and nothing worked. I eventually came up with a solution that combined a few suggestions I'd gotten with some innovation of my own.
Look at the photo again. It's not a matter of filing down a few bumps. There are more gouges on the other side of the freehub body and just as deep as those you see. Those gouges are ready to accept the cogs of the cassette and get everything stuck all over again. I've not been foolish enough to just throw the cassette on there without some kind of shims or protectors. That would be insanity.
Yep, it can be a BIG deal..