dt swiss 190s freehub bearings (on lightweight wheel)

[sungod]

does anyone know if/how the two bearings in the freehub body can be replaced? looks like it's the same as a 240 but with some lighter components and some drilling

background...

the rear wheel felt rough when holding by the axle and rotating by hand, so i looked up the dt swiss instructions, and without all the special tools started taking apart the rear hub of my lightweight obermayers, they had c. two years use, a lot of wet rides

turns out most of it just pulls off (the stopping point i reached is the ring nut on the drive side that needs a special tool)

on the nds i popped the bearing seal, all looked ok

pulled off the freehub body, the ratchets were dry/dirty, probably explains the ultra loud freewheel noise, need to remember that for the future - but this wheel was always loud compared to the one it replaced (when lightweight upgraded mine after damaging the front wheel)

ahhh, the bearings inside the fhb are screwed, there's visible rust and when i popped the seals off they're dry/dirty, not good

can't get at the seal on the ds bearing in the wheel itself as that needs the ring nut tool to get access to it, but the axle turns smoothly without the freehub on, the roughness seems to be due to the bearings in the fhb

it's a 190s which seems rarer and waaaaaaaaay more expensive than the 240s, the downside of obermayers i guess

i squished some grease into the fhb bearings and replaced the seals, cleaned and lightly greased the ratchets - probably with grease that's a bit too thick so i will need to revisit that

reassembled and repeated the spin test, feels a long smoother, but i need to fix it properly/replace the fhb

on the plus side, it's demystified the rear hub workings!

[froze]

I don't know anything about that hub but I did find this and hope it helps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iko1_87I3kY

On ebay they do sell ceramic bearings for that hub too.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DT-SWISS-190-CE ... 0793882816

Sorry but that's all I can do for you, hopefully someone else will respond with a lot more info.

[sungod]

thanks, unfortunately those relate to the bearings in the hub, rather than the ones in the freehub body which is probably not intended to be serviceable, but it's good to see the video showing the rest of the hub being done

via google i found an old post on another forum that suggests an internal 'spacer' between the bearings can be pushed aside allowing the outer bearing to be knocked out, then there's a circlip to take out to access the inner one

i may end up getting a new one and then experiment on the old one

[perwjensen]

Get a tool here:

https://www.endurobearingsonline.com/co ... ol-bbt-013

on the same site they sell ceramic bearings for the 240, please check if same as 190. I believe it is, but not certain.

[androidavies]

The bearings are replaceable, although the ones in the 190 free hub body are very thin wall if I remember correctly. I've had several instances of them breaking up in use. You've done well to get 2 years out of them I would say! Change them before they break up and cause other damage.

If you can't do the job, or don't have a shop that can do it, then you can always get a complete 240 body, which should go straight on in place of the 190 one. It's a few grammes more, but with it's bigger bearings a better long term bet…...

There's no need to replace the hub shell bearings if they're still feeling smooth. As you've found, you also need the DT tool to remove the drive ring before accessing the hub shell bearings.

[sungod]

yes, i'm going to swap them out, the process on the posts i've found so far seems straightforward

btw for when it's time to do the hub bearings i've bought a toolkit on ebay for about the same price as the dt swiss ring nut tool alone, should be good enough for home use...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DT-Swiss-Rear ... 2364171344

[sungod]

it was straightforward to tap out the bearings

inside the fhb there is a tube that sits between the inner races of the two bearings, this can be pushed to the side enough to allow the outer bearing to be tapped out

once that is done, the tube can be removed through the hole leaving plenty of room to tap out the inner bearing

bearing races were corroded/pitted, tiny flecks of metal in the grease, no apparent damage to the fhb itself

bearings are 15x21x4 6702-2RS (metal balls, not ceramic)


improvised a press to put the new ones in, seems fine now