Servicing bearings in DT Swiss road wheel

Binaural

Eats Squid
I've got a dodgy bearing in my DT Swiss rear wheel (20 R). I asked their tech support for the bearing numbers and received them, however they cautioned that they apparently have special bearings with a heavy duty outward seal and a low friction inner. This is a commuter bike so I would like to keep things inexpensive, so I am checking out whether it is better to get them repaired by a shop or to buy the tools and do the work myself (not a big problem).

1. Would this differential sealing make any real difference to the service life of the bearings? Has anyone had any experience either way with these kinds of special bearing? I only ride in the rain if I get caught out on the way home, which is pretty infrequent.
2. Does anyone have a recommendation for an inexpensive bearing press and removal kit?
 

Nambra

Definitely should have gone to specsavers
I know bugger all about modern road bikes but have been boning up on DT Swiss a bit lately:

If this is your wheel, it appears to have a pawl hub.

If you then look up the pawl hub technical manual at https://www.dtswiss.com/Support/Service-Videos-Documents you should find full service instructions for your rear wheel hub, including a list of all the OEM tooling required to do it properly. It seems that there is a 2-pawl and a 3-pawl hub, each with different strip down and rebuild instructions.

bike24.de has a good range of DT Swiss gear, including the correct bearings and tool kits. They don't appear to be cheap though!
 

Binaural

Eats Squid
I know bugger all about modern road bikes but have been boning up on DT Swiss a bit lately:

If this is your wheel, it appears to have a pawl hub.

If you then look up the pawl hub technical manual at https://www.dtswiss.com/Support/Service-Videos-Documents you should find full service instructions for your rear wheel hub, including a list of all the OEM tooling required to do it properly. It seems that there is a 2-pawl and a 3-pawl hub, each with different strip down and rebuild instructions.

bike24.de has a good range of DT Swiss gear, including the correct bearings and tool kits. They don't appear to be cheap though!
You're not kidding about the cost of the service kit - 90 or 194 euros isn't coffee money.

I certainly bought the wheels on the understanding that all DiCut hubs had the star ratchet mechanism, which DT swiss advertise as being universal across the range. It would not surprise me if the mechanism was in fact pawl, because they are really quiet relative to my old DT 240 hubs, but I would still be pretty annoyed.
 

Binaural

Eats Squid
Just had this kindly confirmed by the local technical support for DT Swiss - these are in fact three-pawl models. Pretty deceptive marketing by these guys.
 

Nambra

Definitely should have gone to specsavers
I feel your disappointment - pay for legendary DT Swiss reliability, don't even get a star ratchet and need a second mortgage to service the buggers... no wins there!
 

Binaural

Eats Squid
I feel your disappointment - pay for legendary DT Swiss reliability, don't even get a star ratchet and need a second mortgage to service the buggers... no wins there!
Yeah, my love for my old 240 hubs was a big factor - I ride a few shared paths to work and the buzz is as good as a bell. I've busted a pawl freewheel before and it was not pretty, but to be fair I did that on my old 240 as well - the tip of a tooth cracked off under power and got stuck between the faces of the ratchet mechanism, holding them apart and disengaged, causing a graceless fall over the bars 3m from a traffic light.

Looks like I'm going to have to get this one repaired at the shop.
 

udi

swiss cheese
Dropped in for my yearly visit to see this blast from the past, bi 'n' oral! Hope you're well.

The bearings can be replaced with standard ones. Any good quality 2RS will do (SKF or whatever), the stock ones aren't great anyway. You can usually pull the endcaps off and the freehub mechanism just with your hands, or some softjaws in a vice to grab the endcaps - they aren't very tight. They've always used standard sizes in the hubs I've seen - you can read the number off the bearing.

Once the freehub and endcaps are off, you can pop a big bolt into the drive side of the axle so the bolt head covers the axle OD, and bang out the axle which will push out the non-drive bearing with it. At least that's been the case with every DT hub I've worked on, it's usually pretty obvious as you start pulling it apart though.

The only thing is some of their hubs need the drive ring removed to access the drive-side main hub bearing, you can figure that out when you take the freehub body off - if you can see the outer race of the bearing then you're good to tap it out after doing the above step (in opposite direction this time) - if not then probably best to let the shop deal with it. I have the tool and it's still a pain (have to use heat gun). Definitely worth popping the caps/freehub off and checking though, because it's a super easy diy job if you don't need to do that.
 

Binaural

Eats Squid
Thanks for the advice, hope that all is well with you as well and you're getting plenty of riding in :)

I found a video on Youtube that recommends filing a thick washer into a rounded rectangle (something like a velodrome viewed from above) so it will fit through the bearing ID and then rotate to contact the bearing OD. That lets you either push it out with a rod or hammer, or else winch it out if you have a threaded rod.
 
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