Bicycle Mechanics - Need help with 1948 Sturmey Archer AW hub

I recently acquired a 1948 Raliegh Dawn Tourist. The bike was sitting in a warehouse for 50 years and hadn't been move during that time.

This weekend, I disassembled the hub and gave it three kerosene baths. The first was dark and muddy, the second kind of gray, and the third one clear. I repacked the bearings and reassembled the hub. I then gave it a couple good squirts of Phil's Tenacious Oil.

I relaced the wheel and while spinning the wheel on the truing stand, I heard a light, but disconcerting, scraping sound coming from inside the hub. I removed the R.H. cone and the driver and gave the hub a spin. It sounds like the clutch is scraping against the planet body, but it could be the axle key scraping against the clutch; it's hard to tell for sure, but that's the area it's coming from.

How much oil is enough? I see a light coating on everything, but certainly there's not an oil bath. Is this the likely culprit, or something more serious?

The Strumey Archer hubs only require a few teaspoons of oil but you still need to grease any ball bearings. I recently serviced a 1969 AW and it was as good as new. Hopefully you checked the Sheldon Brown site http://sheldonbrown.com/sturmey-archer/aw.html

Edit: this is a great You tube resource http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea6krXSs-lc

Well they have not changed much since .. I think all the AW3 parts are interchangeable.

Not there so I cannot see your issue .. this is just text, not presence.

Like above poster, I used grease on the wheel bearings ,
Phil tenacious squirted in the indicator chain hollow axle end..

Aarons bike repair in Seattle is willing to overhaul IGH..

hubstripping blog is an internal gear information sharing site.

a lot of pictures taken likely required for possible remote information gathering ..

:50: Us Old folks just take things apart and look for worn parts.

When you disassembled the hub, did you tear it down completely to look at the wear points or did you just pull the innards out and clean them as a unit? With a hub this old, it may have some parts that need replacement.

-G

I tore the hub down completely and checked out the wear points. I have no reason to disbelieve the guy when he said the bike hadn't moved in 50 years; the rest of the bike is in pristine condition except for a little warehouse grime. All the gold and red pinstriping is pretty much intact, for example. The only thing I saw on the internal parts was varnish.

I looked at these comments and felt I hadn't packed the ball cage properly so I redid that and dumped another teaspoon of oil directly into the hub. I looked at Sheldon's page again and saw I completely muffed the cone adjustment so I redid that also. One or all of those things did it because the hub purrs like a clickety little kitten now.

Thanks for the help.

AW hubs need a bit of bearing adjustment slop. And specific RH cone initial positioning. Sounds like you dealt with these OK in the end. Andy.