benstiles

Hey everyone,

Trying to get my old ride functional again. The freehub on my 20+ year old Gary Fisher has started to act funky, so I thought I'd try and take it off to clean and lube. However, I can't seem to figure out how to get it off. I've taken off the cassette and axle, but can't for the life of me figure out how to get the freehub off. What I believe I've got is a FH-Q620-7, which is shown in the doc on Shimano's website as EV-FH-Q620-7-0855A.pdf. Sadly, as a newbie here, I can't post a link or pictures yet.
It doesn't seem to have the traditional Shimano free hub bolt, with the internal splines for a large allen wrench.
How do I get this thing off?

Thanks!

CliffordK

Most Shimano freehubs will have a 12 sided Allen bolt connecting it to the hub. I think it may be 10mm... or whatever fits (using a standard 6 point Allen wrench).

Unscrew counter clockwise.

If you choose to disassemble the freehub, the bearing race in the freehub will unscrew. There is a tool that looks like this to remove the race.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284591597866



Some people have made adequate tools out of old sockets.

Iride01 

I never had one of those older style free hubs, but don't you just remove the cone from the axle and then pull? That gets you the entire cassette and free hub and then you have to spin the smaller one or two cogs off of the free hub with one of those cassette removal tools that is essentially a piece of chain attached to a stick. Then the rest of the stack will come off. I think a lot of people had a little homemade fixture to hold the cassette securely while they loosened or tightened the threaded cogs. Sometimes just a piece of 2x4 with some well positioned nails.

Surely someone here knows about the older days still.....................

dabac

I have one of those. It’s probably a decade since I had it apart.
Best I can remember, I proceeded as if disassembling a freehub, and used an improvised 2-prong tool to get the cup for the DS wheel bearing off. It’s a LH thread. After that the f/h body lifted straight off the hub.

benstiles

Thanks everyone- someone else pointed out to me that I may have linked the wrong document, as the one I linked seems to have the freehub held on with threading on the smallest cog. Mine certainly doesn't have that- I've taken off the entire (7-speed) cassette, and the freehub is still very well attached. I've got the outer 9 bearings out, and under the dust cap, I can see there are two notches on the inner race, and those are the only things I can see that might take this thing off. There are splines I can see from the opposite side, though- ie, if I look through the non-driven side, I can see some splines that are at a bigger diameter than the hole the axle goes through. Which means I mignt be able to use a larger (12? 14?) diameter allen wrench from that side....

At some point, I may just decide it's time for a newer bike.....

Andrew R Stewart 

Shimano has used a freehub connection to the hub shell that doesn't employ a separate "nut" threading into the backside of the FH body. They have the FH body with a male threaded (fairly large and coarse) extension that goes inside the shell's female threaded fitting. Much like some Formula hubs use. IIRC the more common "nutted" version uses a 10mm hex wrench (and viewed from the non drive side, a counterclockwise wrench removal rotation). The less common (and Formula like) version uses an 11mm wrench and from the same NDS the wrench is turned the other way to loosen. Andy

benstiles

Two month update.

Finally got the freehub off. Earlier identification was totally wrong, and I still have no idea what it was. I took the wheel to a local highly regarded bike shop, and they couldn't get it off. They tried 12 and 14 mm allen wrenches from the non-driven side, but with no luck. They thought it might be a 13mm. Not wanting to drop a fortune on allen wrenches, I ended up 3D printing 12, 13, and 14 mm hex wrenches in order to find the right size. I finally figured out that a 14mm was actually the right size, but that there was enough dirt inside there to stop the easy insertion. So, I bought an actual 14 mm wrench, forced that sucker in there, and tried to turn it. No luck. Much frustration, many days, and finally with a 6' breaker bar and the help of my wife, I finally managed to break the seal with a startlingly loud bang. After convincing myself that I didn't actually break anything, and that massive noise was just the sound of a 25 year old thread breaking loose, I pulled off the hub.

Now, my plan originally was to clean this thing and put it back on, hoping for the best, but I'm now wondering if I should replace it. The dust seals on the bearings are hosed, and it was skipping to begin with. Trick is, I've got no idea what it is. I looked through all the hubs that performance bike offers, and none of them look like what I've got. Wouldn't surprise me, as this is off a 25 year old bike. I'm pretty sure it's Shimano, 7 speed, but other than that I'm at a loss. It does seem that the teeth that engage the cogs are keyed. Sadly, still not enough posts to post a picture, that would be super helpful. The connection to the bike is through a threaded post into the bike, about 2cm in diameter, with a 12 splined 14mm hole in the middle to tighten and remove (again, accessed from the non-drive side).

Any ideas on how to find a replacement?

Iride01 

You don't mind me putting up your pics here do you?





How much did 3D printing those hex wrenches or stubs to try in the hole cost vs just buying a set? Though just for the coding experience I would probably have done similar if I had a 3D printer.

Glad you came back to update the thread. You get extra credit for that!

benstiles

I don't mind at all, thanks for the help!

I wasn't sure about the cost of the 3D printing, so I had to check. My "slicer" program- the thing that turns the design into a path for the printer to follow- tells me that each of the 10cm long wrenches I printed cost about $0.25 in material. Each one took a little less than an hour to print, so there's that power cost too. But considering that the 14mm wrench I ended up buying cost $15, and I didn't have to buy a 12 or 13, I think I ended up on the positive side of that equation.

Bill Kapaun

Proper ID is key.
The hub you listed is a Uni Glide hub that doesn't show a fixing bolt.
Compare to the 2nd pdf WITH a fixing bolt.

The threaded cog just holds the other cogs on unlike a hyper Glide hub that uses a lock ring.

benstiles

Yeah, I wish I could change the title, but I don't think I can. The original part I listed is completely wrong, unfortunately, and as you say, identification is key.

The hub I've got is neither the one I listed, nor the other one you linked. The freehub doesn't have a fixing bolt at all, but threads directly into the wheel hub itself. You can see those threads in the images that Iride01 posted for me.

HillRider

Won't help the OP any but for future reference for others needing an odd size or large hex wrench, McMaster-Carr sells them in metric sizes from 0.7mm up to 50mm. The cost for the 14mm the OP needed is $7.30 and 13mm and 15mm are about the same. Some sizes are available in a range of lengths. You can order on-line and shipping is reasonable.

My GRX hubs require a 15mm hex and Park wants $31 for it. McMaster cost me less than $10 delivered.