I was changing my first flat on the side of the road which went really smoothly, but as I was putting my wheel back on the bike I somehow knocked this off. I assume that it is a piece off or the rear derailleur (Ultegra DI2), but I can’t figure out where it goes.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Can you take a pic from another angle?
From here, it looks like a small flat plate (with some amount of curves), and is not something I can place.
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Looks like it came from your cassette free hub? Might need another picture of the other side
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Yeah, I considered if it is actually a freehub pawl, but the lack of any grease or mention of removing the freehub held me back from that suggestion without further info.
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Sure looks like a freehub pawl.
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I am new to this, but now that you say it does look like some type of pawl to me as well. I will have a better picture shortly
It that exactly as you found it, or did you clean it?
Well I dug it out of the grass and then it wrote in my pocket for 22 miles.
Grease spec tends to vary from one design to the next. You want enough tack to hold it on the pawl and internals, but not so sticky that the pawl binds and won’t extend into the matching teeth.
Something like the typical Phil Wood or Park grease are probably OK (I like the Phil Wood a tad more usually) Shimano and others offer freehub specific stuff that is obviously best for those uses.
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Great.
Thank y’all so much for the help! I may have never figured out what this was in my own.
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OK, I’ll be “that guy”.
If you have a chunk of your freehub falling out in the grass when you’re changing a tire/tube, something has gone pretty wrong.
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LOL, I wanted to joke about the “went really smoothly” comment… but held back. For quite a few new riders, having a freehub pop off roadside would seem like a very unsmooth event 
I also suggest grabbing a lottery ticket if able, because seeing and finding that pawl in the grass was four leaf clover kind of lucky 
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I guess that I should have said, “up until that point”. lol
No lottery ticket for me. I’m pretty sure that I used up my luck on that. It was a slim chance that I happened to see it for sure.
I’m also lucky that I don’t put out much power or I would have likely broke something with that missing. lol
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a-pawl-ing.
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I should add, make sure the spring associated with the dropped pawl also made it back into the right home location. Without the spring, the pawl will not function as intended and could lead to excessive load on the ones that still have springs in place. No idea if it stayed in place and you didn’t mention it, but some springs have a tendency to jump around when the pawl goes free.
One example that seems possible based on the internal pic from above:
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Want to guess the OP’s favorite musical group?
.
Yup. Peter, Pawl, and Mary.
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I’m still confused as to how changing a flat tire led to a pawl falling out of the freehub body…
Most likely I can picture is a first time wheel remover / swapper fighting the chain and cassette during the wheel change (chain on a large cog in particular) and dislodging the freehub from the hub/axle. Could open enough to allow a pawl to slip free, especially if there is some jostling before, during and after the tube repair. It’s surprising how easy some freehubs will slip off the axle with the right force and direction.
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You nailed it Chad. I don’t have much experience in this area, so I don’t know what most are like, but on this wheel I can push the hub out with my little finger.
The spring was still in place.
Thanks again for the help.
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