Freehub Maintenance??
 

Wondering about maintenance on my freehub? It is a Shimano XT hub. It has been across the US, Canada Europe 2x's plus other assorted rides.
Look forward your advice!
Thanks.

A lot of people will pull them apart and clean and lube. I'm of a mind that if it ain't broke don't fix it (only speaking of free wheel hubs here) because I pull all other parts of my bikes apart all the time and do preventive maintenance on them. Too many loose bearings in the few hubs that I've pulled apart and are a bugger to put back together properly. My 2 cents worth on the subject. Yeah, it's raining heavy today so I'm sitting here on the computer wasting time before I head to the gym to make up for the ride that I'm not getting. :troll:

Consider, dismantle driver from hub, a dunk in solvent,(out with the Old,)
then immerse in clean 90 wt oil (in with the new) whole ..

and grease the axle bearings on both ends.. when you re-join the driver to the hub..





..

Pop the rubber grease seal off. Soak it in a tub of diesel fuel. Let it dry out. Soak it in a tub of red ATF fluid. Let it drain . Put it back on bike. Ride it for another 10K miles.

I bought a Freehub Buddy about 15 years ago so I could flush it and put in fresh lube. That tool is like new - because it's still unopened in the package. So far I haven't seen a Shimano freehub degrade or fail from lack of maintenance, but we'll see what happens down the road.

Every so often, I'll pop off the freehub body and flush it when I have the wheel out to repack the bearings. Shouldn't have to do it too often, unless you've been riding in axle-deep water. :)

For all I know, Shimano has discontinued the production of the tool needed to disassemble the freehub - so light grease can be put, after cleaning.

Diesel, or petrol + ATF as others have recommended does the job well.
Not touching it at all also seems to work, at least for the first 50 years... (my oldest ones are 1974. Dura Ace - from before I was born). :)

If you're a Chain-L user I find this stuff works excellent in Shimano Freehubs. Just the right viscosity, stays in place-doesn't ooze past seals and lasts a long time. Not necessarily better than the other lubes mentioned but if you have some on hand I recommend it.

I own the Freehub Buddy and the shimano tool to take apart the freehub. I take apart a new freehub and make a new spring using heavier piano wire and rebuild it. Every other hub overhaul (5000m) I pump fresh grease through the freehub. I have not had to replace one yet. One has over 90k miles on it.

I've been doing a quick flush with solvents. I don't know if I'm getting all the old lube out but gauge how much dirt is still washing out by the paper towel they drain on. Then let some Phil's oil run through and drain. I probably don't have a 1000 miles on any that I've done this too, so no long term reports. The most common failure I've seen so far is the dust shield getting cockeyed and grinding on the cone's .

One thing I do to try to chase out old grit and lube is to spin the freehub body on itself a few times while the solvent is making its way through. Just dropping it in a jar of solvent and pulling it out the next day isn't going to work nearly as well.

a basket inside the bottle/can , to keep the part off the bottom works quite well ,
as would just buying a new , driver putting it on and servicing the other one, and exchanging the two ..
occasionally,

I flushed mine out with mineral spirits then used 90wt gear oil. Dribbling it in until it shows on the opposite side. I let it sit for a day to let an excess drain off. Seems go to go!