Freehub “double click”

I’ve been trying to fix a freehub issue I had (wasn’t disengaging and as such would lock when freewheeling).

After rebuilding and a thorough clean (oil used as lubricant so that I could eliminate sticky pawls) I’m getting a double-click when I rotate the freehub. Having a camera inside would be awesome, but it sounds like 2 of the pawls are engaging a few degrees before the 3rd.

The hub is made by KT for Vitus (kt-h5er-2227), I would just throw a new freehub in there but I’m unable to find one that says it’s compatible.

Other that going back to hope and having to re-lace the wheel, any suggestions? Just ignore it?

I always thought they all engaged separately to decrease the angle of engagement anyway. If I’m understanding correctly and you get a click – click – gap then maybe the third is stuck open.

I always assumed they were 120 degrees apart so that they all engaged in unison due to the massive power I put into the pedals…. Although I’ve not measured they look like they are evenly spaced.

I will strip the wheel down again and see if I can partially insert the freehub to view the pawls moving…..

I have been told even when there are multiple pawls at the same angle (ie not staggered) it’s common for only one to engage.

How does it ride?

They won’t need to be staggered if the number of teeth on the ratchet isn’t divisible by 3.

I haven’t had the chance to ride anything more than up and down the street, it’s an hours drive for me to ride offroad and I need to be sure it’s fixed before I do that!

….and now I need to count the teeth on the ratchet….

Try swapping the pawls around within the freehub?

I always assumed they were 120 degrees apart so that they all engaged in unison due to the massive power I put into the pedals…. Although I’ve not measured they look like they are evenly spaced.

The last one i had apart and looked at in detail had 6 pawls and i think 50 evenly spaced teeth. I think marketing had it as a 2.something degree engagement. Someone else can do the maths.

Oh, that’s ridden by a 100+kg 4x/dh rider. Reason i had it apart in the first place was because he’d split the hub housing, applying massive power off the line… Wasn’t obvious he’d split it until i got the hub apart!

So yeah, 50 ÷ 6 = 8.33 teeth per pawl.

So…. I appears to have 45 teeth on the ratchet, which means that all 3 pawls should engage together. Upon further inspection it does appear that 2 of the pawls engage together and the third slightly later. If I rotate the freehub really slowly I can see all 3 engage separately Worst case scenario is I only have 1 pawl engaged, the other 2 are on top of the ratchet teeth….
I’ve never looked this hard at a hub before now, but have lost faith that these are a) working as they should be, and b) are reliable. I can’t even be sure what freehub to order as the H5ER hub appears to have been a CRC/Vitus specific part and spares were only on CRC.