How to service a DT Swiss freehub
Here we will talk you through how to service a DT Swiss free hub body.
Words: Joe Dodd Photos: Chris Herron
A lot of big brands use their hubs, or their own branded hubs with DT Swiss internals. It’s a fairly straightforward job, which will help prolong the life of your hub. I will also mention an easy upgrade to make your hubs feel even better!
Step One
To start we need to remove the free hub body. This can be as simple as just pulling it off with your hand. If it hasn’t been removed for a while it might be a bit stubborn. In this case you can use a pair of soft jaws in a vice as pictured. You don’t need to tighten the vice up too tight as you’ll crush the end cap, just enough to keep it in the vice.
Step Two
Once the free hub is removed, pull out the star ratchets. Use a pick to remove the spring and spacer from the hub and free hub body. It’s always a good idea to lay out the parts in order and orientation so it’s easy to remember which way it goes back together.
Step Three
Next you need to clean everything. Wipe the star ratchets down, if you have degreaser, give them a soak in it to get them as clean as possible.
Step Four
Wipe out the inside of the hub and the free hub body.
Step Five
DT Swiss hubs require their own ‘special grease’ this is slick red coloured grease. It is best to use this to prevent any slipping or other issues that arise from grease that’s too thick.
Lightly cover the axle, free hub spacer and springs and put them into their place. The springs always go large end first as pictured.
Step Six
Liberally cover both star ratchet surfaces with grease and sandwich them together. Now cover the outside with a thin layer of grease.
Step Seven
Slide the star ratchet sandwich over the axle and back into the hub shell. Make sure it slides into the grooves in the hub.
Step Eight
Pop the free hub body back onto the hub being careful to line up the ratchets in the correct place. It should push on fairly easily. Slide the end cap on and you are complete.
DT Swiss offers their ratchets with a few different teeth counts. The more teeth, the quicker the engagement. Most hubs will come stock with the 18-tooth ratchet. They offer them in 36 and 52 tooth, which is a drastic improvement in engagement. They aren’t that cheap, but definitely worth considering.
