I took a shimano apart back in the early 90's and it had a spring and I never fooled with one again. I have a new Falcon coaster brake that I will never use and it has the spring just like shimano so I figured the hi-stop and KT were built using the same design, even without the spring I still would not like them until I was proven wrong. Now for 3 speeds, I never liked them harder to put back together, more parts inside the hub means more coasting resistance. I do not mind pedaling hard until I get my speed up.