Originally Posted by
bluesteak
I became the owner of 6 late 60’s s5 hubs. Most are missing the pushrods, and none have bell cranks, all have 28 holes. Were these originally muscle bike hubs? Can you build a reasonably strong 700 c wheel with these 28 hole shells? Will the internals fit into an AW shell.
The 28s would be for a muscle bike or maybe even a small wheel folder type bike. I'm trying to think of why the original S5 would not fit the vintage AW shell, but not coming up with anything obvious that would stop the swap. I say give it a try - worst case, it doesn't fit and you have to figure out another solution. I would think you could just screw-in the S5 guts to the AW shell. Obviously the axles don't interchange, so it's a total innards swap-in.
There were a couple types of push rods made. The earliest ones with the sheet metal bell crank took the screw-in push rod. The second version with the improved bell crank had a smooth push rod. A properly sized nail can be adapted to work as a smooth push rod in those cases. Shimano bell cranks can be re-fitted to work as well on the S5, with a little work. I tend to like the second version Sturmey bell crank the best of the lot. It looks clean and works better than the original version.