Who's overhauled a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub?

[CRASH]

My '72 Fair Lady is a 3-speed. It's been in a barn for 40 years. Before tonight I've never touched an SA hub in my life, but I cleaned the outside to find that the chrome is still fantastic under about an inch of gunk.

I watched a YouTube video on how disassemble and reassemble it. Ok, I can do that. But what needs greased? And am I supposed to add oil to it? If not, why is there some black port on the hub shell?

Any info, tips, and general encouragement is greatly appreciated!

 

[Frankie plekhand]

I've overhauled hundreds and it's really easy to do. First take it apart, then degrease it, check all the parts for wear or damage.
Then reassemble it
You can grease everything except the pawls and the places where the pawls hook, you should put some thin oil on that places.
Dont overgrease the the hub than it will drag.

The black hole in the hub is a oil point because sturmey archer recommends only oil but todays grease is a lot better so i would reccomend grease
Is it a coaster hub or a freewheel?

I hope this helps you!

Frank
Customize!

 

[mikeeebikey]

Only grease bearings!
Other than that, I use phill wood tanacious oil.
It may take more than once to get the cones adjusted.
If working on a coaster, you have to adjust from both cones. That is, bearing slop is adjusted from the right side, the brake from the left.

 

[Bicycle808]

In-depth tutorial found here:
http://sheldonbrown.com/sturmey-archer_3-spd.html

 

[Jpromo]

To get up and running, you can just flush it with ATF, let it all drain out for a day, then medium oil in the port and into the open end of the axle. Unless you're putting some serious miles on a fair lady, then a bearing regrease wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

[CRASH]

... You can grease everything except the pawls and the places where the pawls hook, you should put some thin oil on that places.

Is it a coaster hub or a freewheel?

What is the pawl?

Freewheel. The bike has hand brakes.

 

[CRASH]

In-depth tutorial found here:
http://sheldonbrown.com/sturmey-archer_3-spd.html

I saw that, but just saw his overhaul instructions. That will work well with the YouTube video. Thanks

Disregard my pawl question above!

 

[CRASH]

To get up and running, you can just flush it with ATF, let it all drain out for a day, then medium oil in the port and into the open end of the axle. Unless you're putting some serious miles on a fair lady, then a bearing regrease wouldn't be a bad idea.

Ever inch of this bike is getting full attention. So I've got the time to do a complete overhaul. But thanks for the quick tip for future finds.

 

[Jpromo]

What is the pawl?

clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick

 

[Bicycle808]

clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick

To add a visual with it, here's a pic of what's clicking when you coast...:


This is a BMX hub, but pawls are pawls. I can snap a pic of an actual Sturmey pawl ring when I get home, if you need it. The pawls are the little key-shaped jawns in the hub above; you can see 4 of them but this hub has 6. (2 behind the tape measure.) If you look closely, there's little wire springs that pop the pawls out. Basically, pawls allow hubs to freewheel.... the pawls stick up and engage going one way, but lay down and click going the other way, which is what coasting is....

Hope I explained that well. Engagement problems usually mean the pawl springs are shot or gummed up, or (less likely but still possible) a broken pawl. But that's why you don't want to use heavy grease on SA pawls; that'll gum them up and lead to spotty engagement.

 

[CCR]

I would recommend messing with the freewheel stuff over a bucket or a clean surface at least. The pawl springs (the little R shaped wires) in those are about as thick as an eyelash. Dont know how messy your work bench is but if you take it apart they are easy to misplace. And definitely dont do it a room with shag carpeting. The hardest part about working on those hubs is just getting the drive side of the shell open. I boogered 2 hubs up rebuilding the 3 speed in my bicentennial SR ...

 

[Bicycle808]

I would recommend messing with the freewheel stuff over a bucket or a clean surface at least. The pawl springs (the little R shaped wires) in those are about as thick as an eyelash. Dont know how messy your work bench is but if you take it apart they are easy to misplace.

+1; excellent advice. That's good practive when overhauling most anything with small parts (anything with loose balls, including hubs, headsets, BBs), but there's a lot of goofy l'il things inside an AW hub. Have fun!

 

[CRASH]

The "feels" ok, of course I haven't felt one before. It sounds "dry", if that makes sense, which made me believe that the insides were parched for lubrication. I guess I'll just need to tackle it to really know what it needs. The entire bike doesn't look like it was ridden much, so I'm guessing there is little to no wear inside that sucker.

 

[CRASH]

HA HA!! Success!! Thanks to the crazy Dutchman Frankie Plekhand, I was able to figure out what I did wrong. Hint: Adjusting the bearings isn't like a normal hub, so follow the instructions closely!

Before:

During:

After:

Smooth as butter!

 

[Frankie plekhand]

Youre welcome! Glad to be of assistance

Feank
Customize!

 

[SILVERKINGPC]

Not all pawls are created equally... Sturmey-Archers' seem pretty bomber in my experience. Can't say the same for many of the new MTB hub pawl/ratchet combos though. Nice!