Grinding up a steep section tonight in lowest gear and crunch, came to a stop. May have caught a branch initially but couldnt see the culprit. Somehow the cassette and freehub had been levered out externally by the chain which was solid between spokes and cassette. Indexing and limits screws were perfect so something else made it happen. Took wheel off and cassette and freehub loose on axle. Reengaged pauls pushed it back in, wheel back in, tightened up QR and limped home. All was realigning and shifting OK. Have taken wheel off at home and freehub and cassette are free to pull off.

Bike shop tomorrow I guess, is it the axle, or has the seating seal ring failed ? Dunno !

The deal is just a seal, it applies a little retention but it doesn’t hold it together. Effectively what does that is the bike- the freehub sits fairly freely on the axle, the endcap holds the freehub in the proper place and the bike holds the endcap on.

When you say the freehub’s free to pull off- does the axle come with it, or does it still stick out of the main hub body by a few inches?

It’s either all fine and it’s basically just fallen apart a bit essentially because of a loose QR, or, it’s ******. If it was an old Pro 2 I’d bet money on the axle snapping, Evos are better though.

sounds like when you have pushed it back together the seal hasn’t snapped into place causing it to stay loose. could be something totally different mind!

Thanks, axle still sticks out main hub body so maybe a branch or something has just popped the seal. Its not old, spring 13. QR wasn’t loose at all so presume it was force of the chain going down between cassette and inside of big ring pushed it off ?

Will see what guys in shop think I guess. Hopefully its not full of crud and crap after 30 mins of muddy mess getting back after trailside fix. I suppose as freehub was reengaged the pauls should be fine

thanks nothwind and timc, LBS had a look, took apart, cleaned out pawls and popped it back togther. As thought, the seal had popped, as a result of the chain jam. The mechanic had only ever see it once before – on his own bike at Kinlochleven last weekend 🙂

No expensive parts, happy days 🙂

Indeed, just a tenner to sort.

Ordered a Croix De Fer 30 while I was in there though 😳

I’ve had this happen. I now have the tool from Hope to reseat the free hub, which goes back in after cleaning, regressing etc with a soft click. It’s good to know everything is back together correctly!

Indeed, just a tenner to sort.

Ordered a Croix De Fer 30 while I was in there though

Sounds like when I went to buy some gear cable inners and accidently bought a carbon 29er as well.

Glad the hub isn’t toast 🙂