Shimano freehub maintenance question

[Dombo]

Question for the more mechanically minded. Today I decided to lube my freehub. It's an Easton R4, instructions on the website

http://www.eastonbike.com/TECHNICAL/ROA ... R-a-d.html

so very easy to take apart and put back together. My question is regarding the sprung pawls. These are the things that make the ticking sound when you freewheel, they spring past the teeth inside the body then engage when you pedal forward. My hub has three pairs so I usually get a tick-tick-tick when freewheeling. When completely clean they spring in and out quite happily, but less so when covered with grease. Anyway, I took out the bit with the pawls, which is the freehub body, wiped it down then liberally greased the bearing faces and put the freehub body back in place. This squeezed out a lot of grease so it was quite well packed in. Took the bike for a spin and no odd sounds coming from the back when pedalling under load eg uphill as I had begun to notice on BH yesterday. However when I stopped pedalling, freewheeled, back-pedalled, coasted, it was still completely silent. No ticking, nothing.

Having taken the thing apart and seen the pawls I understand that when you coast they move past the teeth and tick as the spring engages with each one. Their shape allows them to pass the teeth while freewheeling but engage when pedalling. My fear is that there is now so much grease inside the freehub that it muffles the ticking or even that the pawls' springs cannot move them against the teeth.

So, my question is, have I put too much grease in the thing?

Thanks for any advice

[Sylv]

Is is not light oil you are meant to put in there instead?

[Dombo]

I don't know. Instructions said to use Easton Cassette-Body Grease which comes in a tube. I used Finish Line Synthetic Grease instead which has a picture of a freehub on the tube. It is the white stuff, looks like toothpaste, quite viscous.

[Sylv]

Should be ok then? If the pawls engage when you apply pressure it should be good to go. Give it a few weeks and I'm sure the clicking will come back

[Andrew G]

You can just sneak up behind people on the next CR before attacking them without them knowing you were there. Although equally you can't get the nice ratchet sound of the freewheel to annoy someone who's slogging in to a headwind as you tuck in behind them for an armchair ride.

[Alex S]

generally less greased freewheel = clickier. i know of people that have taken grease out just to have louder clickies. I dont need to now, I have a 6 pawl freewheel