I'm pretty sure you meant they shouldn't impact each other.

It was hard to tell where the noise was coming from since it would only happen when I was riding. I originally thought it might be a bearing and used the brakes to isolate which wheel. Once I determined it was the rear I noticed how the ticking changed when I was pedaling or coasting and figured it must be the freehub.

Will I need any special tools to change the freehub?

Mitch