About 4 years ago, I obtained a fairly pristine Columbia Sports 3. While a bit of a limp noodle of a frame, the fit was much to my liking, and I set about upgrading it in various ways; I converted the bottom bracket to facilitate using a modern 3 piece crank, and obtained nice wheels from Harris Cyclery to replaced the chromed steel ones. Latter were heavy, and very frightening when wet. Anyway, the replacement rear wheel had the S-RF3 hub, which seems to be generally regarded as a worthy successor to the AW. With the grease, rather than oil lube, no leakage, and no false neutral possible from a bum cable adjustment, either.

After about 3 years and 3000 miles, I was noticing that the shifting was not so easy anymore, and more irksome, when downshifting to first, there would intermittently be a "CLUNK", like a bad ratchet tooth, or maybe sticky pawls. I decided to do a tear-down and flush, and convert to some sort of liquid lubrication. At this point, I'll publicly thank FBinNY for much wise counsel and patience in answering questions I had about suitable lubricant, and Dan Burkhart for his posts here, and You Tube tutorials on internal gear hubs. I was a bit apprehensive about doing a full disassembly, thinking that maybe if I just got the inner assembly out, sloshed it in a coffee can full of kerosene, blew out, and drowned it Chain-L,
and repacked the ball ring and outer bearings with grease, that would suffice. But, as I dug in, the overall good condition made me worry about what the clunk could be. So- I dug in, and found that one of the low gear pawl springs was not on the pin at all! It was just sort of floating beside the pawl. It had to have been thus from day one. There was no visible damage, and I was able to put the pawl in properly. I did do the kerosene slosh, old paintbrush and blowgun treatment to all the parts, and reassembled with marine grease in the bearings, and 2 teaspoons of Dexron ATF in the body. (Sorry, Francis- I wanted to save the Chain-L for the chain, and felt something a little lighter might be better for Indianapolis winter temperatures.) Anyway, it spins and shifts better in the work stand than ever. It was getting dark, and I had replaced the chain and cog, and want to let the Chain-L penetrate well before wiping down and riding. So- no test ride tonight, but I'm confident it will be fine.

Wow... this is getting too long! Anyway, I guess where I am going with the post is:
1. New Sturmey Archer 3 speed hubs are sturdy! Running just one pawl for low, for thousands of miles, didn't seem to damage the ratchet teeth, or anything else.

2. The S-RF3 overhaul is really easier done than said. The exploded views from the factory technical information are a bit daunting, but when one has one on the work bench, the way the bits go together are fairly obvious. The pawls might be a bit tricky (obviously, the factory didn't even get mine right!) but if one is attentive, does one at a time while saving the other side for reference, etc. it is very serviceable.

Thanks to FBinNY, Dan Burkhart, noglider, and Sixty-Fiver for the storehouse of information here! Doing a detail strip, finding the problem and getting the hub back together and working silky smooth is a great feeling of accomplishment. The S-RF3 is NOT actually a Rubix Cube of hubs.