Originally Posted by
Leisesturm
First thing, those pictures are terrible. Sorry, but they are. It doesn't look like an Allen key was meant to work in there is my guess. SAE? Surely not. Some kind of splined removal tool maybe. In over 45 years of wrenching on bikes I've never had to pull a freehub or freewheel, but ... as I understand it, there is LOTS of torque needed. Vises and wrenches with seriously long handles come out of hiding for freewheel removal. If it were my bike I would have long since contacted Novatec.
It's hardly uncommon to replace freehubs.
That one most likely takes an allen wrench, regardless of what it looks like in the photo.
Yes, it can take a bit of effort to break them loose, but it's not a Herculean task. A vice can help.
When I recently had to warranty the freehub on a Novatech D982, they initially sent the wrong one, but then shipped out an entire replacement hub. I didn't really want to rebuild the wheel when it only needed the freehub, but at least they were responsive.