Last week I had a similar situation with a rear shock likage, where the bearings on the factory steel eyelet pin turned as though they were indexed, once removed they spinned smoothly. To solve for that I replaced the steel eyelet pin with an aluminum one that was just a tiny bit smaller diameter, and while the new bearings had to be pressed on with a press, they do spin smoothly on the new pin. I was lucky in that I had a spare pin and the size was perfect match. Not sure if an axle replacement would solve this issue for you, potentially something to ask a good shop about or DT directly.

 

It could be that you hub is on the tight side of their quality spec. So when you press your bearings in it just slightly squeezes them and then they don't spin freely. Definitely a warranty issue to me.

 

This happened to me with a Giant branded DT360 (?) hub. It was hard to spin by hand. Turns out one of the bearings in the freehub was being squished too much by the freehub body. I replaced it with a better quality bearing and that fixed it. I think DT Swiss uses cheap bearings in their low/mid priced hubs.

Also, to OP, maybe you installed the bearings either too far or not far enough. This can cause binding in the bearings once installed on the bike, but not so noticeable off the bike.

 

Thanks I was thinking this also...its really getting to the point of the only possible thing. They say send it in....lol shipping would be close to a new hub

 

I was almost thinking of a ghetto turning of the inside with a drill and foam sandpaper just a tiny bit to de-pressurize the bearing

 

All on an internet diagnosis.

 

I would not recommend doing that... ist one way to mess up the hub more and say good bye to any warranty you might get from DT. Did DT offer to warranty it? If so, they would need to replace the hub shell so shipping just the hub shouldn't be that expensive.