Anyone running a Shimano 333 3 speed hub?

[kingofpainftw]

So I decided that I want to build a multi gear bike, and went hunting around eBay. I ended up with a Shimano 333 3 speed hub, laced to a 26" rim with click shifter and Cable. Ive been looking around different bike sites online (including this fine community) and haven't been able to find what I need so far about adjusting/routing the shifter cable. I can only find information on the Sturmey-Archer/Nexus hubs. So anyone know how to rout the shifter cable to have it properly adjusted? any pics of how yall have done it would be great. Ive been trying to figure this out all day and so far no luck. Also anyone know a way to shorten the cable I'm very new to how all this works. I would really like to mount the shifter where the red arrows are. Sorry if this is a stupid question I'm pretty new to this multi gear business.

 

[Unchained]

I had a Shimano 333 on a homemade muscle bike. It was a very nice, dependable hub. I made my own stick shift, but I did have a trigger shifter like that at one point. I sold it on ebay, along with my 333 and a Shimano 3S hub, back in August. I think, If I am not mistaken, that the trigger shifter comes apart rather easily...? Have you taken it apart? I don't know what the cable end is like, and never adjusted mine, so I'm not sure if this is helpful, but I figure if you can take it apart and look for a while, and if the cable end is just cable (no ball/cable catch thing) you could cut it and refigure it. The plastic outer cable would have to be cut too (which is no big deal)...

Good luck with the shifter problem.

 

[xddorox]

The shifter must be disassembled to replace the cable. Be careful, there's one ball bearing in there that will fall out and you need it. To adjust a Shimano 333, look at the hub where the link assembly is for the hub, you'll find a round hole with a red line at the top of it. If you move the linkage you will find a red "N" in there with a circle around it. Put the shifter in second gear and play with the adjustment barrel on the cable near the hub until the red "N" is aligned with the red line outside that small hole. You should be on the ball with shifting right there. Good luck.

 

[roadmaster]

siskiyou county 3speed expert, at your service. (ahh yes, i wear many hats)
i have had and still have quite a few older shimano "333" 3speed hubs as well as a 3S or two. it love to get my #s coaster brake hub back on the road and laced up to a cruiser wheel for one of my rides. just having bad luck locating parts for the stock clicker shifters to put it all together. i can rebuild the ones i have and go buy a new shifter cable. they are not that hard to put a new cable into or even rebuild, as long as you are carefull and pay attention to what you are doing.

to shorten up the cable, i believe that they are barreled on both ends. one end for the shifter and the other in the gear adjuster ferel that threads onto the shifter linkage on the wheel's axle. for that i will move the clampable collar that holds the cable and housing to the chain or seat stay, further up the stay to get the desired tension, tightn the clamp down and use that as a startin gpoint for my adjustments. if the non shifter end isn't barreled with the thread on ferrrel, then it has the type of ferrel that you can run the cable end thru and tighten it down like a conventional brake wire and adjust to preference. its so hard to explain here. if i was there with you and your bike, it would be so easy.

these are ok hubs with fair to average reliability. most of my igh hubs are sturmy archer aw's and in my experience are more durable, easier to rebuild and last longer than the "333" hubs. i won't even try to rebuild my "333" hub but have done dozens of s.a. hubs. go figure and don't get me wrong, cuz i do like the 333.

hope that helps. feel free to pm me if i can help

 

[kingofpainftw]

Thanks guys that helps a lot, hopefully it will stop raining tomorrow so I can spend some time on it in the daylight. Ill try and get a build thread up with pics of the progress of the entire bike.

 

[kingofpainftw]

Well I couldn't wait till the morning to try and get this thing adjusted properly so I brought the bike in side, And am happy to say got it working smoothly. Thanks for the help guys, greatly appreciate it . Now its time to figure how to mount the old .223 ammo boxes for saddle bags :roll: . should be a productive night.

 

[RZ94]

This Murray started off as a 10 speed with friction shifters. My bride doesn't like frictin shifters, and I didn't want to change over to indexed, especially since she would only use oneof the two front chainrings, and two or three of the rear gears. I had an early 70's Huffy with the same style frame with a Shimano 333 rear hub.....so I swapped the wheel set and shifter and associated goodies....and now she likes her Murray again. It wasn't a hard swap, just a matter of getting the "pulleys" for the shift cable in the right places. I used the twistgrip shifter from the Huffy as well. It was a very easy swap.