Bicycle Mechanics - Three-speed hub tightness

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mynameisnotdrew
01-02-05, 11:06 AM
Howdy Folks,

I got a tight three-speed hub. The shifting is just fine, but when the bike is on the stand and I get the wheel spinning, it spins the crank along with it. Even worse, when I spin the crank backwards, the wheel will very slowly begin to spin backwards as well. It is NOT one of those nifty three-speed fixed gear hubs.

What's worse, the tightness seems to be concentrated into about 15 degrees out of the 360 that the hub makes around the axle. Do you think that maybe the sun pinion is missing some teeth?

I tried adjusting the left-side cone, to no avail.

The chain is not too tight.

The hub is a Hercules B-Type (pre SA acquisition)

I DO NOT want to take the hub apart, unless absolutely neccesary. If I do have to take it apart, do I need any special tools?

Thanks for any advice
-Drew

Retro Grouch
01-02-05, 12:40 PM
Consider your options.

It looks to me like you have three choices:
1. Ride it the way that it is.
2. Try to fix it.
3. Get a new rear hub or wheel.

Assuming you take the second choice. You have two options:
1. Non-invasive - Give it a shot of some light oil and see if that loosens it up.
2. Open up the hub and see what's going on.

If you don't want to ride it the way that it is, I don't see that you have anything to lose by taking the hub apart. At worst, you'll have to replace the hub which is your only other option anyway. It's been 40 years, but the one time that I tried overhauling a 3-speed internal hub, the result was fine. They're not all THAT complicated.
mynameisnotdrew
01-02-05, 01:06 PM
OK, say I DO take it apart, and say the sun pinion or the outer gear ring is jacked. Will the hub get MORE and MORE jacked over time by being ridden with a jacked sun pinion or gear ring? Will it be hard to put the jacked parts back together?

OR, are all SA sun pinions/axles identical? If so, peachy. Do they fit hercules? That, it seems, would be another question. J&B has SA axles, but who knows anything about the specs?

Retro Grouch
01-02-05, 03:34 PM
OK, say I DO take it apart, and say the sun pinion or the outer gear ring is jacked. Will the hub get MORE and MORE jacked over time by being ridden with a jacked sun pinion or gear ring? Will it be hard to put the jacked parts back together?

OR, are all SA sun pinions/axles identical? If so, peachy. Do they fit hercules? That, it seems, would be another question. J&B has SA axles, but who knows anything about the specs?

I don't see how any of this affects your choices. If you don't want to ride it the way that it is, you either have to fix it or replace it. If you can't fix it, your only other choice is to replace it. I don't see what you have to lose even if you try to fix it and find it exceeds your capabilities.