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I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the freehub body off of this hub. Everything I can find online about the Vuelta hubs says that I should be able to stick a 5mm hex key into both sides of the axle and just loosen them, but this hub only has hex on the drive side. When I try to loosen that, only the non-drive side nut comes off. This is a 2014 Vuelta XRP wheel. Thanks for any advice.Non Drive Side with the Nut RemovedDrive Side

Update: The second part of Nathan's answer was correct. When I put a 5mm wrench in the axle on the drive side as well as a cone wrench on the not lockring on that side I was able to remove the nut. Pulling off the nut.

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  • Working on a different brand of cartridge bearing hub awhile back I found that I needed to use two different size allen wrenches -- both 5mm and 6mm or some such. The smaller size wasn't obvious until you looked closely with a flashlight, as it was buried quite a ways back in the axle.
    – Daniel R Hicks
    Jan 19, 2017 at 2:37
  • @DanielRHicks. I tried that. On the non drive side a 5mm wrench doesn't fit and a 4.5mm slides all the way in. I also shined a flashlight through the thing and there aren't any flats visible inside of the axle on that side.
    – KevinC
    Jan 19, 2017 at 17:17
  • I edited your response as I couldn't understand what the "not" was that you put the conewrench on. I replaced with "lockring" but you may have meant "nut" or "notch" -- feel free to revert my edit and clarify yourself.
    – RoboKaren
    Jan 30, 2017 at 7:42

4 Answers 4

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I just did this hub yesterday. Used 17mm cone wrench and I think 5mm allen on drive side at same time. Cone wrench held in place and allen (attached to axle) turns CW as if tightening. Loosens up and then you spin the nut right off.

I was only servicing the free hub so did not work to free axle from hub which likely takes a hit with mallet.

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I don't have specific experience with this one, but the pictures suggest it works one of two ways:

  1. From where you're at now, you bonk the end of the axle on the non-drive sufficiently hard and the axle slides out, possibly taking the freehub with it, or if not then letting it be removed.

  2. You put the 5mm allen in the drive side end and a cone wrench on the bit with the cone wrench flats next to it, figure out if it's a left or right thread, break that connection and unscrew it, and the hub comes apart that way. I think this is more probable.

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  • I actually tried both of those approaches with no luck, but I didn't get very aggressive with either one because I was worried I'd break something. I'll try again tonight with a little more force and then report back here.
    – KevinC
    Jan 19, 2017 at 17:19
  • Alright, what's actually probably going on is everything on the right side is an endcap (as opposed to the allen wrench flats being part of the axle), and it's the drive side endcap that has to come off first for any service on the hub. The main way of doing that is put the ND side endcap back on tight and try to use some wrench english with a 5mm on each end to have the drive side be the one that breaks free. If that doesn't work then holding the ND side axle end in an axle vise may do it. The endcap or freehub will uncover an allen fitting on the axle you can use to free the ND endcap.
    – Nathan Knutson
    Jan 19, 2017 at 18:20
  • Number 2 got it done. Holding the axle in place with the Allen wrench and then using the vibe wrench on the same side I was able to remove the nut.
    – KevinC
    Jan 29, 2017 at 2:56
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I actually don't have first hand experience with the Vuelta hub but based on this video Video of Removing a Vuelta Hub Cassette Body and your pictures I would predict that you need to use a cone wrench on the drive side and a 6mm hex inside the non-drive side axel to loosen the freehub body

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  • Unfortunately, that doesn't work. The non-drive side nut comes off but not the nut on the drive side.
    – KevinC
    Jan 19, 2017 at 17:20
  • hmm... have you tried Nathan Knutson's first recommendation.
    – dafew
    Jan 19, 2017 at 17:28
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I think you are all not correct. The freehub may actually be bolted onto the hub and the bolt head is inside the hub with the threads going into the freehub.

I have a Vuelta Pro XRP wheelset and getting my freehub off was a project. You have to get the axle out, first, and that is done by tapping the non-drive bearing out by tapping on the drive-side axle (be gentle).

After the non-driver bearing and axle are out, you can access the bolt head that holds the freehub onto the hub. For this you need a 12mm hex driver (Allen wrench), which is very hard to find. I found one on Amazon; They had it to me by nightfall.

Insert the Allen wrench into the hub from the non-drive side. You’re going to need an extender on the short end of the Allen wrench, to get some leverage. That’s all there is to it. :-) It’s the stupidest design that they could possibly come up with, really.

When you’re putting the bearings back on, use a large washer and a large socket to “tap” the bearings in evenly and straight. Again, gently and far enough in to anchor the axle, but not bind the bearings. Good luck and curse freely; it helps.

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  • Welcome! That’s some good info, but I think the question was limited to the previous step of removing the axle by releasing its lockring. It also seems resolved because OP said they were able to get the lockring off and accepted an answer.
    – Swifty
    Apr 14, 2019 at 15:29

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