I think I’ve boogered it

fitted cassette, about 5 miles into ride gears weren’t changing properly and chain actually coming off big tooth into the spokes. Then realised the cassette hadn’t seated properly and wasn’t fully on, to the point it was rotating on the freehub (Hope) under power

now when I try to remove the cassette, the freehub tool is rotating and splines are all okay, but it is rotating in notches rather than smoothly, and cassette doesn’t seem to be unscrewing

that’s pretty badly explained! hopefully makes sense….

any thoughts?

thanks

Have you pulled the Hope end cap off first.

This… The endcap of the Hope freehub traps the SRAM XD cassettes.

You need to remove the endcap before you can remove (OR INSTALL) the cassette – and unless it’s a 12mm TA endcap you may well need a non-standard XD driveside endcap.

End cap is off.

I think it may be cross threaded

I think cross-threading is likely and I believe it is the biggest cause of issues with these cassettes and drivers. I think they are a fundamentally good design, with the fineness of the threads being the weak point.

I’ve never really understood how you can be certain that the splines are going to line up and the cassette seat properly, but it just seems to work. Most of the time.

If it is cross threaded, is there anyway of getting it apart and salvaging freehub or cassette?

it may be cross-threaded but try and unscrew the cassette while also pushing/leveraging it off from the the back, by a flat-headed screwdriver between the spokes/flange and the 42 sprocket. Sometimes this can be enough to disengage the cassette from the driver.

To be honest, I don’t know.

Thinking about it makes me think not, and I’d always be wary of replacing one half of a cross-threaded combination and hoping it will screw onto a previously damaged thread. It might be that one thread is significantly harder than the other, so if you can get it apart, that part might be OK. I suspect the cassette will be harder?

Good luck, but I think you may be in for an expensive replacement bill here……

Reggie might be onto something here.

I used to have to do something similar with a shimano compatible Hope hub that I could never get the bloody end cap off of.

I used to partially undo the cassette lock ring and then lever the whole lot off by wrapping a chisel in tape and cloth and using levering the cassette spider leg against a spoke base. Not ideal, mind.

I’m pretty sure it caused some damage to the spoke ends and the biggest sprocket used to flex a lot sometimes.

But it sounds like you’re on a hiding to nothing and need something that puts a lot of outward leverage on the cassette whilst unscrewing it. You may need a helper as I think we have just exceeded two hands worth of tool use!

If you’re going to sacrifice the freehub then you may as well pull it off the hub first and clamp it in a vice rather than risk trashing the wheel at the same time.

The threaded part of an XD cassette is steel AFAIK so it may be ok if the freehub is aluminum.

The threaded part of an XD cassette is steel AFAIK so it may be ok if the freehub is aluminum.

That’s what I thought, so it could be that the steel thread has survived and chewed up the aluminium one……

Aren’t drivers a bit cheaper than the cassettes, admittedly not by much?