I posted a while back about the 1971 Hercules 3-speed I salvaged out of the trash earlier this fall. Well, I'm still working on it to get it up and running for a commuter bike.

The problem I'm having is with shifting. It doesn't engage when trying to shift, and when pedaling, it will "skip," for lack of a better term. It will feel as if there's no resistance to pedaling, then it'll sort of pop into gear, and then come in and out over and over again. When shifting the gears when it's standing still, it appears to shift well between 1st to 2nd to 3rd, but when i downshift from 3rd to 2nd, it kind of hesitates before popping in, and then does something similar from 2nd to 1st.

I'm thinking it might be the shifting trigger, but I'm not overly confident about that. I've put oil in the hub, but I'm trying to do whatever I can to not have to take the hub apart... This is the first bike I've really worked on, so I'm definitely a newbie.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!