I have a strange problem I've never come across before on an AW hub.

As it came to me the sliding clutch was seized up. A ton of oil and a few gentle taps freed it up so that I could slide it up and down it's entire range of motion, as far as I can see with the driver removed.

Now I have a new problem. The driver doesn't engage the hub's guts when the clutch is in third gear, instead it just spins without making any contact with them. If I pull the indicator rod I can get second and first just fine. As I look into the hub, nothing appears out of place.

Has anyone seen this before?

I consider Dan Burkhart the man when it comes to these- He's made lots of video ect. There are others, but Dan always comes to mind first.
https://www.bikeforums.net/members/d...art-19437.html

Or ask here.

​​​​​​For the love of English 3 speeds...

Are you *sure* you reassembled the hub correctly? It DOES matter which cone you tighten down first! (RH is first, then into shell etc.) Otherwise it's likely you need a new clutch spring (it's not pushing the clutch far enough) or the clutch plate is damaged. Inspect especially the contact points between the clutch and pinion pins which drive the clutch plate in third.

On looking at it again, I noticed that very little axle was sticking out of the drive side, not enough to fit it to a dropout without leaving off the axle nut. The other side of the hub had a lot sticking out. So I shuffled the cones along and now I have third gear again. I figure that the offset axle wasn't giving the clutch enough room to move.

I don't post very often. Mainly I lurk on the forum waiting for good advice from the likes of Dan Burkhart and a handful of others. But I'm an AW rider.

In my experience there's a correct way to set up the placement of the cones. This was a puzzle to me until I found good instructions. The best guide I've seen is the reprint of the section from Sutherland's, that's at the Sheldon Brown website. Check it before believing my memory.

You screw in the drive side cone until it bottoms out, then you screw it back out by enough for the square face to engage with the anti-rotation washer, then you tighten the lock nut on that side.

Then you adjust the bearing for the right amount of play using the non drive side cone. This should give you the correct shifting range to reach all of the gears without undue stress on the indicator rod or other parts.