Originally Posted by
jamesj
question for all the other 3 speed gurus!!
So every time I pull my rear wheel out and put it back in the bearings always seem to tighten up, I took it to the local bike shop and they got it adjusted for me. Then I had to install some fenders pulled it out and it tightened again. so I started to inspect the wheel and I noticed the drive side nut was lose, Im thinking this is what was making the bearings bind up which is not a good thing, im not able to turn the drive side cone with just my fingers so it it probally tight. is it supposed to be like that?
As for the non drive side it was nice and snug. What do I do to get this working correctly? I haven't done a bearing adjustment on a 3 speed hub before.
non drive side.
Note that on your drive side you have the rectangular washer that locks the position of the cone, but on the non-drive side you don't. That anti-turn washer makes life easier. Any chance you can get one, from another hub or from the bike shop or whatever?
If not, it doesn't really matter as long as the non-drive side is nice and snug as you describe. The fine tuning is done on the drive side. The Sturmey Archer instructions say to turn the cone down finger tight, then turn it back a quarter of a revolution (or a little more, or a little less, whatever it takes to get the rectangular washer to lock against it) then tighten the locknut against it. Since the rectangular washer will prevent the cone from turning, the locknut doesn't have to be very tight.