Hope II rear freehub strip down advice, please.

Any body done this?
Seen the video on Hope about the whole rear hub strip down, but my problem is the freehub body drags a bit and I have very quiet clicks.I know I am being fussy, but a very quick backpeddle does cause the chain to slacken huge amounts, in normal riding there is no problem.I have taken the freehub off, been carefull with the spacer and regreased with thick prep-M. Removed some of the thick grease because drag was no different and thought too much grease may be the issue. Should I have a go at the very vague “just drift the three bearings out of the freehub body” video advice? to service or replace bearings to get a smoother freehub spin????
Thank you in advance for any help.

Before you remove any bearings, remove the freehub body and check that they are free to rotate, and not siezed up or stiff.

I can only get to the outside two and I am of the understanding there are three?The two external are freerunning.Just thought if I popped them out, cleaned them out and regreased them it would help with the freehub freerunning better.Found an MTBR thread, need to sign up. Do I simply get out the socket set and bash them out? looks so in the exploded diagram, no circips in sight.

check my thread on needing a new freehub (a few days ago) someone put some helpful links in there for me and mine is now sweet as a nut..the bearings were **** to extract though..

Regreasing bearings is a waste of time IMO. Once they run rough or have got wter into them they are scrap and very cheap to replace. If they get water in its usually because the bearing has failed causing the seal to fail – not the other way round.

If its just the freehub that is stiff but the wheel runs fine just remove the freehub – it pulls off and clean and regrease inside the ratchet mechanism

There are 3 in the freehub, one larger inbound and two smaller outbound. Remove the freehub by simply pulling it off after removing the axle spacer.

Check to see if the bearings rotate ok, if not then replace. Clean out all the ratchet grooves and remove and clean the pawls and springs, reassemble with only a very slight amount of grease on the ratchet and under the pawls. To replace the freehub simply push back, working the rubber seal into place on the hub.

Very simple job.

What is annoying though is how crap the bearings are. Why on earth Hope have decided to swap to tiny bearings like that is beyond me, the old XC hubs had lovely big bearings that lasted longer than 4 months 🙁

Is the socket + vice or wack technique the one to remove the bearings?
I added way too much grease by the sounds of things, hub is almost silent.