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Hi, I went to fit a new cassette on my Shimano RS100 Rear wheel at the weekend and notice the cassette was moving side to side. I have taken the cassette off and have noticed that there is some play now in the freehub body? The wheels have done around 500 road miles on a road bike as I only purchased them last summer? Any suggestions on the best way to fix this? I have used shimano hubs on my mountain bikes before no problem and the old 105 one previously on this bike last many years with no issue so this does seem premature to me?
Is it definitely the freehub body? It's not a spacer missing on the cassette is it?
Thanks for the suggestion, yes is is definitely the freehub body. With no cassette on you can feel the play by holding the freehub body. I put the cassette on another wheel and it appeared to be fine so the issue appears to be with the freehub body.
Assuming it's similar to all the other Shimano freehubs I've played with they tend to fail through not engaging. I've not seen side to side movement, if it's not the axle/cones and bearings and assuming the freehub bolt is up tight it probably needs to be replaced.
They can be pulled apart and serviced (my brother has done it following advice on the CTC forum). In his case it was to sort out the lack of engagement of the pawls. Inside as well as lots of little ball bearings and the pawls is a stack of shims/spacers that take up the play. Might be one of these shims needs to be thinner so there is more preload on the freehub bearings. Each freehub can have different number/thickness of spacers depending on the tolerances.
To disassemble you need to remove the dust seal (blind bearing puller or tap with screwdriver from behind) & then unscrew (clockwise, its a LH thread) the main bearing race (the one with 9? balls bearings you can see on the drive side). To remove you need a 2 pronged tool, brother made this by grinding. filing down an old socket.
If you do go down this route rather than straight replacement the grease to put it back together should be quite light so it doesn't gum up the pawls.
Did you take it completely off? The Shimano manual for my particular freehub makes a point of saying it should "click" when you press it back on...
No I have not completely removed it, I think it will need replacing though due to the nature of the looseness in that it is side to side. The wheels have only been used for around 3 months. It seems poor to me that this should occur so soon after what has been light use so far and 500 miles. Warranty can be difficult I hear on wheels but they are only 8 months old.