I just opened my rear Hope Pro 2 (non-Evo), that was supposedly totally rebuilt by a LBS 4 months ago To my surprise the two inner bearings on the freehub are totally destroyed and the axle is resting only on the third, last one, which runs rough. Probably related to this (due to movement I can imagine) 3 out of 4 pawl springs were broken. Looks like I have been running on a single pawl for some time….

Anyway, the situation is that the inner metal ring of the two smaller bearings is gone:

The two grooves are the grooves for the balls in the outer shells of the two bearings. Those shells are all that is left from the actual bearing. I can’t remove those shells 🙁
There is a metal lip in the inside, preventing the bearings from moving in. It also prevents me from knocking the bearings from the inside. There is no inner metal ring, which I can use to push the bearing. I tried catching only the edges of the remnants of the bearings and pull with pliers, but did’t work.
Only thing that comes to my mind is to rest something in the groove for the balls and hammer it that way. Opinions?

Also, there is a Hope video on Youtube from 6 months ago, that shows how to service the Pro 2. It shows that there are 2 spacers inside the freehub – one longer and one shorter. In my case, there is only one longer spacer and two of the bearings (the two broken ones) are sitting right next to each other. Is this a new design for the Evo?

If lbs is worth their salt it’s their problem?

Blind bearing puller. Heat up fhb, cool race somehow.

To remove the shells I’d suggest warming them up in an oven set to 250 degrees, the alu freehub will expand more than the steel shells so they should come out easier. As for spacers, it sounds like what you’ve got is correct, there should be 2 bearings side by side at the pawl end of the freehub, then a spacer and a single larger bearing at the lockring end.

If I remember correctly, the ‘hula hoop’ style spacer you see should separate the two bearings. You’d normally use a screwdriver or similar to push the spacer aside, then knock the outer bearing out. Have the lbs put the two bearings in alongside one another?

I’m probably wrong…….EDIT – I’ll go with Dave ^^

Can you not move the spacer aside, from the back, then catch the edge of the remnant bearing cages and tap/whack them out?

I can’t remember the freehub design well, but does the outermost bearing knock out away from the hub? If so, get that out first, it’ll probably give you an angle on the 2 inner ones. Bigger hammer to take them out together. Bit bodgy.

Failing that, I have a pro 2 freehub sat on the shelf here, wee bit notched but otherwise good- I upgraded to Evo spec so it’s spare, drop me a line if it’s of use.

Contact Hope, they have excellent customer service

Send to Hope. It could be with them by Thursday and be repaired with minimal cost and fuss. Unless you have access to good quality expanding bearing extractors you’ll not get them out without risk of mashing up the freehub body.

Well the LBS responsible is 2800km away, so not exactly local.
I managed to remove the outer bearing by carefully hammering a thin flat screwdriver between the two bearings, which gave me enough leverage to pull it. The inner one isn’t so easy. I am also concerned not to damage the bearings bed.

The oven method sounds like it could work, I may give it a go.
The other two options that I can think of is to get two or there anchor bolts, get them in and spread them, so that they bite into the bearing:

Or the other thing is to cut a tube with similar diameter like a headset extractor, spread it to bite into the grove for the balls and hammer it out.

I put one spare bearing in the place of the one I managed to remove so that I have bearings in both ends of the freehub. Once the other bearings arrive I will try one of the two options + the oven.

If you have a welder you can weld onto the race and knock that out.
The heat from the weld and some where to hit does the trick
Seen it done on a few things just not as small as a hope hub .

There’ll be a little gap inbetween the hub flange and the bearing – heat the whole thing up then freeze spray on the old bearing race and tap a flat bladed screwdriver into the gap, work you way around until you can lever the old race out.

Blind bearing puller (these are really quite cheap) is you friend though you’d need a vice to hold (or use as a stop) for the freehub. Try and locate a local engineering firm, and see if they’ll do it for you (if they have a puller). Have also heard of ppl using Dremels, but you’d need to be damned careful.

Use a dremel with a very thin diamond abrasive cylinder and carefully grind part of the outer bearing race away. once there is a gap in the bearing race it will fall out of the FH body. I had to do this to mine a while ago and it took about 1/2 hr of careful grinding, checking every 5 secs or so to make sure you’re grinding the bearing not the alloy FH body

7122 is the type of bit i used

An engineering machine shop will have em out in 10 mins with the correct puller. Most towns will have a little Backstreet shop to do this for you…