Bicycle Mechanics - hubabaloo about hub gears

Among my 3 bikes is an old Sears 3-speed FreeSpirit. (Don't laugh -- I can leave it at the train station and NO ONE ever tries to steal it.) The FreeSpirit has a hub gear rather than a deraileur. What's the proper way to detach/attach the hub gear from the rear wheel?

(I feel like I have a decent understanding of my Shogun and my Trek since it's easy to find maintenance information for modern bikes. But the FreeSpirit has things that remain unknown to me......)

Try http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/ I believe he covers this. I know he has a bunch of info on Sturmy Archer 3 speed hubs.

I think the Free Spirit hub was an Austrian copy of the Shimano hub. Does it have 333 stamped in the hub or any other markings?

To remove the sprocket (or gear as you call it), there is a round spring on the ourside surface of the sprocket which holds it onto the hub. Now, before you start, is the time to go to the hardware store and get yourself a spring tool ($6.00 and worth it even if you only use it once).

By the way, why do you want to take the sprocket off? Do you want to take the hub apart? If so, the sprocket will come off with the axle if you remove the bearing cones from the other side of the axle.

The best three speed hubs were were also the most common; Sturmey Archer and Shimano. These are excellent pieces of machinery and provide thousands of miles of trouble free service.

You do need to lubricate them with OIL, however. Do not use grease. Use three speed hub oil like Phil Wood's oil or, in a pinch, light (new-clean) motor oil. Do NOT use WD-40 or 3-in-1 oil.

OK, getting the rear wheel off of the FreeSpirit turned out to be easier than I thought. It looks like I can now get it on and off just as easily as I can get on or off a rear wheeel on a bike that uses a derailleur.

I still have one minor problem, though. Namely, when the chain is around the gear and I go to put the rear wheel back into place, the chain has no slack and it prevents me from seating the rear wheel axle all the way back into the drop outs. I have reattached the wheel, but not as far back into the drop-out as I would like. Should I open up the chain, seat the axle all the way into the drop-out, and then reattach the chain? (I hate to open up a link in the chain if I don't have to, on the idea that it can weaken the chain.)

Socrates once said, "The admission of ignorance is the beginning of knowledge." I guess, then, that I am at a "beginning of knowledge" point with the FreeSpirit.