Freehub has resistance when QR's are tightened

[Kermithimself]

I have a set of Enve wheels with the carbon hubs. When I tighten the rear QR the freehub has resistance that forces the cranks to turn. I can actually feel the resistance if I hold the crankarm and the wheel slows down. If I loosen the QR, the cranks hardly move and the freehub body moves more freely without resistance. What can be done?

[maquisard]

I can't speak for Enve wheels and the hubs in question, but any time I have ever seen this on other wheelsets it is due to the bearings being incorrectly installed so that they are not pushed far enough into position.

Is the wheelset new or have the bearings been replaced recently? Any bike shop should be able to investigate this for you.

[PJCM]

Not sure of the hub schematic in this case, but I encountered a similar binding issue on a FFWD Kun Teng hub that was missing a spacer washer between the freehub and the drive side bearing pressed into the hub shell. Compression from QR was enough for the freehub pawl carrier to laterally contact the hub shell. Restoring the spacer provided an immediate fix. Just something else to check.

[jlok]

obviously something is pushing against the bearing as a result too much sideload / bearing preload is applied and resistance occured. This will damage your bearings.

for example my CLD hub was once supplied with the wrong axle, which is a bit shorter than required. That way when the QR is closed the end cap was pressed on the preload ring and the bearing inner race. With the correct axle, the end cap pressed on the end of the axle instead of the preload ring.

[alcatraz]

If your freehub was taken off, the spacer sometimes comes with it.

It's so small that people sometimes don't see it laying on top of the inside bearing inner race.

It's not even one mm thick and has the same inner/outer diameter as the bearing inner race (if the bearings are at the ends of the freehub).

It's possible you have a different design but as mentiones by previous posters. The issue is that the spacing between freehub and hubshell is maybe too small. Check that you have all the necessary spacers installed correctly.

If you have dropped your wheel it's also possible your non drive side wheel bearing was moved out a tiny bit causing this issue. It'd have to be pressed back in fully. When the freehub is off, check the axle for radial and lateral play.

/a

[kavitator]

ENVE hubs has DT swiss 240 internals - so only one big spacer is between freehub and hubbody bearing.


Is it freehub or smallest chainring on cassete touches rear droput?
I have one with that problem

[TobinHatesYou]

I've come to accept that some hub designs just allow binding in the bearings even with supposedly preloaded/locked collets. This happened with both my front and rear White Industries CLDs, resulting in prematurely worn bearings.

[GlacialPace]

As others have said, either a spacer missing (can be very thin, or quite big depending on the hubs, though if these are 240 internals then it is hard to miss) or bearing not seated correctly. Are the hubs new? Or have they recently had work done on them?
If they are new then you should be able to get them looked at under warranty, same if they have had work done on them.

[jlok]

I've come to accept that some hub designs just allow binding in the bearings even with supposedly preloaded/locked collets. This happened with my both my front and rear White Industries CLDs, resulting in prematurely worn bearings.

My CLD happened to have this problem. WhiteInd admitted that the axle was from (correction) 6-bolt hub instead of the required longer axle for centerlock hub. That caused the end cap to press the collets and the collect pressing the bearing. The 3 screws collet is not meant to withstand claming force I think.

p.s. My CLD was old enough to have the older style end caps and slower engaging pawl ring. The newer CLD I've seen a few months ago has got nicer endcaps and faster engaging pawl ring.

[Marin]

If you can identify the place where the binding is happening you can shim the axle to fix the binding. I just did this successfully on a Bitex with a worn bearing seat.

[mpulsiv]

I've come to accept that some hub designs just allow binding in the bearings even with supposedly preloaded/locked collets. This happened with both my front and rear White Industries CLDs, resulting in prematurely worn bearings.

Interesting. Did you reach out to White Industries? I wonder whether this a design flaw that affects T11 hubs as well. I’m no expert since I haven’t serviced hubs before but my memory serves me right that White Industries built tough.

[TobinHatesYou]

I've come to accept that some hub designs just allow binding in the bearings even with supposedly preloaded/locked collets. This happened with both my front and rear White Industries CLDs, resulting in prematurely worn bearings.

Interesting. Did you reach out to White Industries? I wonder whether this a design flaw that affects T11 hubs as well. I’m no expert since I haven’t serviced hubs before but my memory serves me right that White Industries built tough.

Seems jlok provided an answer of sorts. I ended up buying thru axles for my CLDs, which made the problem moot anyway.

My CLD is also the 24 PoE version.