How do you tap them out? All I can think of is you push the spacer to one side to get to the edge of one of the bearings with a drift/screwdriver.

don't you just use the axle ? I put a bolt into the skewer hole and hit that

Tap? Tap!?

If its anything like my old Hope XC's, you'll need a 1/2 lump hammer, a strong bit of hardwood under the hub, (cos everything else splits) a socket that just fits inside the bearing so you can lodge it behind the bearing (as a screwdriver will skewer straight through) and a strong right arm 🙂

I can remove and replace the hub body bearings using the Hope tools, but it's the bearings inside the freehub body that I can't work out how to remove.

See if this helps but it should be as you described

http://www.hopegb.com/page_mep_force_37.html

Thanks uplink, I've used that vid before, but that's the problem. The Northern geezer in it mentions the freehub body bearings about 5 mins in and says "just tap them out if they feel ropey", but how do you tap them out? As I said, hub body bearings are a piece of p1ss, but it's the bearings inside the gold freehub I'm trying to work out how to remove. Ta!

with the xc you push the spacer to one side & drift the bearing out that way

Yep, that's what I think is the only option. Once you've got the one out, you can easily get to the other two I suspect.