I feel like an idiot, but i can’t figure this out. I took off my freehub for some yearly cleaning. I cleaned all of the parts, and re-greased. I put it back together and re-installed the cassette. Off the bike, i can move the cassette independent of the wheel, but once i get it back on the bike, the free hub seems to be seized and there is no back spin at all. Almost like I’m riding a fixie again. Help anyone? I thought i made sure to install all of the free hub components in the correct order, but who knows. This is a 32teeth star ratchet style, BTW.
Any chance you might have not fully inserted the freehub into the rear hub, and then proceeded to tighten the lock ring down to spec?
That could possibly increase the pressure/force acting on the cassette, and consequently, the freehub body, resulting in the situation your having.
Is it possible that you forgot to reinstall an end cap?
What model of hub is it?
Sounds like something is wrong with the pawls/ratchets.
Are both ratchet rings the same shape? It could be that one is deeper than the other/has a recess which the other doesn’t. If so, that could lead to the splines of the driver ratchet ring interlocking with the splines of the hub shell drive ring, effectively locking the hub into fixed gear once the end caps are compressed.
Sounds like you didn’t install the spacer that goes between the bearing and the freehub body. Without it the freehub seizes into the hub body/bearing and makes it seem like a fixie.
I’ve had a similar experience before with a seal that was on back to front. Just make sure you’ve got all the parts in the correct orientation. If unsure, somewhere if you can find an exploded view of the hub somewhere.
If you’re sure it’s all together correctly, make sure seals etc are all bedded in. If things aren’t quite right, it’ll probably spin until you put a cassette on, then once it’s all.comlressed by the cassette it will bind
So, the cassette is fine tightened. But when i put it back into the frame and tighten with the thru axle, it stops spinning. I found the silver ring and tried to attach it before i put the free hub back on, but it’s too loose and moves off. I can’t figure where else it goes…
There’s an end cap that goes on the end of the axle after the cassette is installed, before the wheel goes back in the frame. As someone mentioned earlier, are you installing that before putting the wheel back on? Does it go on smoothly and without resistance?
If you’re talking about that silver ring in the picture (the one around the “sleeve”, that should be the spacer that goes over the freehub body first, before you start putting on the largest cogs of your rear cassette.
Also, I could be wrong (can’t really scrutinise the components from the angle of the image(, but check that the spring seat is in the correct orientation.



