My Sturmey Archer S2C kickback hub has some play.. What do you guys think?

[carrotsnax]

Hey guys I have a S2C kickback hub that I have put around 10-15 miles on. I have noticed grease starting to come out of the action arm cup side of the hub.. No big deal there, but my concern is that the wheel has play like a wheel on a car with a bad wheel bearing. I can move it more than what I like, easily and it almost looks as if I could tighten down the thin lock nuts on the hub to take this slack or play out of it. But I am not that in the know about these hubs so I wouldn't want to over tighten it, if it requires a particular amount of play.

Here is a video I took trying to show the play, it was difficult to film, holding a camera and rocking the wheel to represent the play. lol



Thanks

 

[Bicycle808]

These need a little play, but it looks a bit loose on your video. (FYI-- the play is prolly more noticeable at the driver than at the reaction arm.) Also, there seems to be a lot of grease oooooozing out of that dust cover. I'd break out the cone wrenches and tighten it up a bit. You want it as tight as you can get it without any binding. If you gotta go one way or the other, a tiny bit too loose is better than a tiny bit too tight, but yeah: I'd say yours is loose.

Also, FYI- early runs of that hub were missing an internal part or two; if you contact S-A about it, they'll send you the missing bits but they expect you to install it yourself, or pay a shop to do it. I know you've got only a few miles on the hub, but if you bought one that's been sitting in a warehouse for awhile (or, if you've had it without riding it for a while), you might want to look into this.

HTH