DT Swiss 350 Hub Repair

New Wheel Day!

Recently, I bought a set of road wheels for my gravel bike off Facebook Marketplace, a beautiful set of HED Belgium Plus rims laced to DT Swiss 350 hubs. When I installed the rear wheel and tightened the axle, however, the wheel wouldn’t spin on its own and was very difficult to turn manually. Loosening the thru axle helped, but that would cause other problems with hub and cassette alignment, thru axles are meant to be tight!

Tools Needed

• Cassette lockring remover and chain whip
• Low viscosity hub grease
  • DT Swiss recommends their special grease, available from Pushys here
  • I’ve had success with “Koozer 7590 Bicycle Hub Special Grease” from Aliexpress, which is significantly cheaper

Diagnosing the Problem

I pulled off the freehub body to have a look at what was going on. Nothing seemed obviously out of the ordinary to my eye.

A quick Google search for the problem turned up this thread with a potential solution from “Slavi,” who suggested it was caused by a missing bushing #7. After watching this breakdown video a couple of times, I confirmed that I was indeed missing the silver “RW spacer” that slides over the thru axle. Below is an image showing the DT Swiss ratchet mechanism, the missing spacer, and how it all fits together.

Replacing the Spacer

An incredibly easy job. The part, called “DT Swiss Spacer Bushing for Hubs - 15.4mm” is available online from Pushys at the time of writing.

While waiting for the part to arrive, I tried bodging a solution with copper tubing, then with metal and rubber washers. There really isn’t much wiggle room for sizing misalignment, so I couldn’t make anything work. A week later, the part arrived and installing it was as straightforward as it looked.

Final Thoughts

I have no idea how the seller lost the spacer, maybe while replacing the ratchet mechanism? In any case, it’s fantastic that the parts are so readily available for replacement and repair. I’m impressed by how simple and reliable the ratchet mechanism is, and I’ve already bought a second set of these hubs to build up a touring/bikepacking wheelset.

Hopefully this post helps if you run into the same issue!