sturmey archer hub locked up

[notmyrealnamebutclose]

Hi guys
A mate of mine has a poorly maintained vintige triumph with a 3 speed sa hub, problem is it seems to have seized up,
the peddles turn a short distance thenthe rear sprocket just locks up. I'm gonna try squirting some (alot) wd40 in
but think its probably a waste of time and likely knackered, anyone suggest owt else, are theydifficult to take apart
and attempt a fix or best left to specialist? He won't want to spend money on it and he's not that bothered about it
really, he's got the use of other bikes but its bugging me and I want it fixed lol. Thanks.

 

[Drago]

Straightforward tomsteip and rebuild. Some good guides on Pooptube.

 

[notmyrealnamebutclose]

Straightforward tomsteip

Eh ?

 

[Chris S]

Somebody is fixing a seized Sturmey Archer hub here. I'd try the WD40 first.


View: https://youtu.be/qdk6-0ueQMU

 

[Drago]

Eh ?

Sorry, I meant to strip. I have no feeling in 2 fingers so, as the regulars here will attest, my toping is derdful.

 

[notmyrealnamebutclose]

Somebody is fixing a seized Sturmey Archer hub here. I'd try the WD40 first.

What a facinating video, thanks mate. I managed about 8mins in before my head exploded, the engineering is amazing, such
clever people. I'm really hoping the WD40 works lol!

 

[mjr]

Just removing the core from the shell may be enough to see what's stuck and whether it can be freed by soaking or whether something has broken and got stuck between other moving parts. Everything is available as spares, often fairly cheap individually, but it's an expensive to buy a whole hub that way

 

[raleighnut]

Sounds like corrosion in the wheel bearings to me, SA hubs have a funny set up.

 

[FrankCrank]

I own several SA 3 speed hubs, but to date not had to service one, ie stripdown. They are generally regarded as being bombproof, even the old AW models (Always Works). If they've been left abandoned for a decade or two, flushing with WD40 is said to revive them, so worth a try. MonkeyShred covers it very well in that vid, and RJ the bike guy did something similar. I've got a couple of old dynohub versions back there gathering dust - fancy the idea of dismantling one of them just for fun. Will most likely fetch it back here though, where most of my hammers tools reside.

 

[Chris S]

@notmyrealnamebutclose I've got an old Sturmey Archer wheel you can have if you are in the Birmingham area. It was working when it came off a bike that was scrapped in 2015. You will need to use your old wheel nuts and inner-tube though.

 

[ericmark]

Engineering wise the three speed seems very good, however my wife with a three speed could not climb raises the same as rest of family so I decided to fit a new wheel and 6 speed de-rail type gears, kept the chain guard, so still reasonably clean for lady rider, but the result was far better than expected, she could climb steeper banks and had a better on the flat speed.

I am not sure on why the original 4 speed was stopped, or how the new 5 speed works, but the 3 speed clearly better than no gears, but not that successful, however it did have a few advantages, clean, and can change down when stopped, but are they really worth repairing?

Well I suppose so, I work on a heritage railway so can't really say too much about keeping old stuff going, and it is surprising what releasing oil can do, springs are the worse bit, if a spring breaks then releasing oil will not help, but once there is the slightest movement it seems to work through.

 

[rogerzilla]

Which heritage railway, Eric? I have vague plans to do that when I retire in a few years' time.

 

[notmyrealnamebutclose]

Thanks everyone. I managed to squirt about 40 mls of paraffin in the oil port before v brown stuff
started to seep out, span the wheel and will leave it for a couple of days and see if that sorts it. Doubt
it will but worth a try i guess.
Hoping to be able to rip the hub down without removing all the spokes if possible as they look rusted
on so not looking to replacing broken spokes too if i can help it.

Thanks for your kind offer Chris S but I'm nowhere near Brum.

 

[ericmark]

Which heritage railway, Eric? I have vague plans to do that when I retire in a few years' time.

Llanfair to Welshpool, a 2'6" guage ex-BR there is Keys Cottage where volunteers can stop, and also electric hook up for motor homes and caravan, in spite of being going for a long time, 1963 re-opened as a heritage railway, it is still trying to catch up with loads of work to be done, at the moment only one engine in steam, Zillertal on hire from the Zillertalbahn, the two others which should have been running both delayed due to Colvid.

At the moment all trips start and end at Llanfair Caereinion where the workshops are next to river Banwy or Einion, but normally it did a service to Welshpool and a bike is classed as a dog and a £3.50 daily charge. Most the carriages have extended balcony so you can see all what is being done on the engine, but struggling at the moment as a very steep line, so limited how many carriages can be pulled, so with social distancing the numbers carried are well down, so money is tight with so few visitors being carried, unlike many other railways can't pull extra carriages.

 

[tyred]

I own several SA 3 speed hubs, but to date not had to service one, ie stripdown. They are generally regarded as being bombproof, even the old AW models (Always Works). If they've been left abandoned for a decade or two, flushing with WD40 is said to revive them, so worth a try. MonkeyShred covers it very well in that vid, and RJ the bike guy did something similar. I've got a couple of old dynohub versions back there gathering dust - fancy the idea of dismantling one of them just for fun. Will most likely fetch it back here though, where most of my hammers tools reside.

If you are dismantling a dynohub, do not remove the armature from the magnets as it will destroy the magnets.