Sturmey-Archer XRD-3 converted to oil.
 

About a month back, when I posted about converting my Sturmey-Archer XRD-3 to oil lubrication, someone asked me to make a thread on it after I did it, so here goes.

Actually dissasembling the hub was very easy, all I needed was an old screwdriver and a hammer, plus 15 and 17mm spanners. I clamped the axle in a vice to make things easier, but you could just as easily use a big adjustable spanner to grab the axle flats. Full instructions on how to dismantle the hub are available on Sturmey-Archer's website.

I stripped the hub down completely, except for the driver pawls and planet cage pawls, which I didn't think I could remove without trashing them. I wasn't planning to remove the gear ring pawls either, but the pins that held them in fell out. I cleaned everything with white spirits, and left it to dry overnight.

On reassembly, after 15 minutes of cursing while I tried figure out how to refit the gear ring pawls and their springs, the whole thing went together very nicely without any lubrication, and, for the first time, I understood how the whole mechanism of the hub operates. It's too complex to explain it here, but it's fascinating.

The axle bearings and driver bearing are actually still grease-lubricated, but I poured the oil into the left-hand end of the hub mechanism right before I fitted it to the shell. I think I used about 100 ml of oil, and it's fairly thick motorcycle engine oil, so the pawls are quite quiet when the hub's running, but they definitely don't stick. The strange clattering from the internals when I coasted in top gear is also gone, due to reasons which I think I understand, but which I can't begin to explain over the web. The shifting also seems a lot easier than it was, but that may just be my expectation affecting what I feel. To oil the hub, I just add more of the same oil through the right-hand end of the axle. I am quite careful not to lay the bike down on its left-hand side, as I'm not sure if that would cause oil to leak into the brake drum or not, but during normal operation, the oil must stay put, because the rear brake still feels the same as before.

I can't remember who asked me to post this, but I hope it satisfies you!