campi free hub question
 

I am cleaning up an exceptionally dirty Bianchi Eros. The freehub, rear wheel and spokes were coated in caked on dried grease. I decided to take the bearings out of the freehub and renew the grease. The drive side axle nut had no flats I could reach with the freehub in place so I removed the nut from the other side. Instead od the axle sliding out from the drive side the entire freehub slid out.

When this happened the pauls and springs inside the hub shell came out as well. Upon removing the grease seal from the drive side I found a sealed bearing.
Now, in one hand I have the axle and the internals of the free hub. inside the freehub are 1/4" ball bearings on the drive side and 3/16" balls in the non drive side cone.

There are 3 pauls with tiny springs that have to slip inside the hub body.

I tried for 2 hours and was never able to coax them back into place. I tried tying a small zip tie around everything but that didn't work. I then tried a heavy string with a loop at one end cinched arround the hub shell but could never get everything into position so I could slide the assembly back inside the shell.

Can anyone explain the proceedure for doing this. I can just get another wheel(we have plenty) but know there must be a proceedure for this. I spent a lot of time cleaning the wheel and don't my time to have been wasted.

Campy has offered at least two versions of their freehub pawl compressor used during freehub reinstalling. Here's what a three click search found Campagnolo UT-HU080 / 7260223 freehub pawl retainer tool, 1990's | eBay Andy.

Thread ?

i use a long twist tie wire, from a bulk foods bag... remove the paper from the wire, wrap the pawls down, twist ONCE...... get the pawls started back in place, untwist wire, then remove the wire.
old copper single strand telecom wire with the insulation removed works great too.

you could use old school dental floss too.. tie the pawls down with the floss..., start them into the hub, then burn thru the floss with a lighter or match.

a few decades of re-assembling alternators and electric motors, with New armature Brushes, teaches you lots of tricks like that.. scotch tape, strips of shim material acting as a "funnel" to help guide the brushes or armatures in place, etc, etc.

ATV/small engine pull starter springs... those twist ties work magic in that case... plus lots of practice, and really careful finger work.
some come pre-tied to ease installations.

One of these came with a set of Campy wheels that I purchased; https://www.ebay.com/itm/11642566069....c101506.m1851
It works well. The Campy part # is: UT-HU090 If you want to search for one.

I've never had an issue getting the pawls to drop into the hub when reassembling. I apply grease to the pawls and the "ratchet surface" inside the hub, slide the freehub up next to the hub, and then turn it counter-clockwise until the pawls drop into place. On rare occasions I've needed to poke one of the pawls to get it into the hub but generally it's not needed. This experience is based on Record hubs, so maybe things are different on the hub you're working with.

The first gen Campy freehubs had 3 loose pawls and 3 associated small springs. Getting this all back into the hub shell is considerably more challenging than the later design with a circular spring that holds everything together.

Solution: 3 wraps of dental floss. The unwaxed kind because it is less slippery.