grinding campy freehub

[danjo]

I seek the wisdom of the forum.

I have campy record hubs, not sure of the year (but they have the three pawls on the one pawl spring).

Recently I noticed an annoying grinding coming from my rear wheel that would happen only when I was freewheeling. It was easy to recreate the sound by putting my bike in the stand and slowly pedaling backwards while the rear wheel is spinning. If I pedaled slowly I would hit a certain pedal position where the grinding would start and it would grind every revolution of the wheel (i.e., with the regularity that you would hear if a non-true rim were rubbing agains the brake on every revolution). It's loud and you can kind of feel it through the pedals.

Anyway, I took off the freehub body and lightly greased the pawls and it seemed to do the trick. However, about a month later the sound is back. It seems unlikely that the pawls need to be greased again. Is there anything else that could be causing this? Maybe there was something wrong with how I greased the pawls?

I'd love to hear any advice. Thanks!

[Mike748]

Seems to me it would be some eccentricity between the freewheel and the hub that would cause this. Perhaps a bad bearing in the freehub? Can you feel any wobble in the freehub if you move it or twist it relative to the wheel?

[danjo]

You know, there is a little bit of wobble between the freehub and the wheel that I noticed, but it's not a lot. I'm new at working on wheels (it's always been the one part of the bike that really intimidated me) so I don't know how much is normal.

Is there any way to change bearings in a campy freehub or do would I have to get a whole new freehub body?

[Mike748]

I haven't done any in the recent generation of freehubs, but I think you can just change the bearings. They should be held in by circlips.

[oldpotatoe]

I seek the wisdom of the forum.

I have campy record hubs, not sure of the year (but they have the three pawls on the one pawl spring).

Recently I noticed an annoying grinding coming from my rear wheel that would happen only when I was freewheeling. It was easy to recreate the sound by putting my bike in the stand and slowly pedaling backwards while the rear wheel is spinning. If I pedaled slowly I would hit a certain pedal position where the grinding would start and it would grind every revolution of the wheel (i.e., with the regularity that you would hear if a non-true rim were rubbing agains the brake on every revolution). It's loud and you can kind of feel it through the pedals.

Anyway, I took off the freehub body and lightly greased the pawls and it seemed to do the trick. However, about a month later the sound is back. It seems unlikely that the pawls need to be greased again. Is there anything else that could be causing this? Maybe there was something wrong with how I greased the pawls?

I'd love to hear any advice. Thanks!

Take the freehub body off and see if the top bearing in the freehub body is crunchy. Replace if it is, it just pops out..a 6801 I think but I'm at home, not at the shop. The lower bearing in the freehub rarely gets crappy. While the freehub is off, spin the axle and see if it feels smooth. If not, OVH, with new 5/32 balls into the little cages, 15 per side.