Jawihan

Is there a way to check the gear changing of hub prior to lacing it into a wheel?. I thought I could possibly spin the hub and pull on the chain and see the indicator rod move into different positions to change gears. This would save me from lacing a wheel to it to find it isn't working properly
Thanks
James

rhm

Not really. Even if you take it all the way apart and examine every part, you can't completely confirm it's working right until it's installed and adjusted. But don't worry about it. If you get it all together and it isn't quite right, you can fix it. The guts can be replaced if necessary.

Jawihan

Thanks RHM for your reply. I was hoping to be able to test it beforehand., If it doesn't work, it may take some time to find another to provide parts around here

rhm

Fair enough! But really, don't worry about it. The point is that everything inside the shell can be replaced in minutes, so the labor of building the hub into a wheel will not be wasted even if the hub has problems (which is not likely). Go ahead and build up the wheel and install it and try it out. Then, if you have trouble, worry about fixing it. If it comes to replacing stuff, you will find many people on this forum have the parts you need and might be willing to share.

photogravity

+1 A LOT of the guys around the forum have extra AW hubs laying around that serve as donors for other hubs. I have two that have been torn apart recently, that served to get my Hercules A Type 9 (it was skipping in second and third gear) and my Sturmey FW (it was skipping in second gear) hubs working again.

What I really need to do now is find a good source for clutches, pawls, planet cages and pawl springs so I don't need to tear apart hubs for parts.

austex

There is a way I have used - mount the hub (cog installed) in a frame, hook up the cable and trigger and adjust the indicator correctly ("shoulder" even with axle-end in 2nd gear, assuming a correct-length indicator). In 2nd gear, while turning the cog by hand, watch the hubflange relative to the cog - should match rotational speeds, as this is one-to-one (watch the spoke holes relative to the cog teeth); shifting to 1st gear, the hubflange should turn more slowly than the cog; vice-versa in 3rd, flange turning faster than cog. A bit of tension on the hub shell can help.

Tom

Jawihan

Thanks everyone for your help and Tom, that's what I'll do to check it, thanks
James

photogravity

What you say is entirely correct, but this will not tell you if there are worn parts in the hub that will affect its operation once built into a wheel and ridden. The Hercules A Type 9 that is on my Hercules Kestrel worked perfectly when "bench tested", but skipped badly in 2nd and 3rd gear on the road until I repaired it.

wahoonc

You can check to make sure a hub is not locked up on the bench by putting a toggle (indicator) chain in it and moving it while turning the cog. However as pointed out you reallly have to build it into a wheel, mount the wheel and ride the bike to get a full check. I routinely swap innards out while rebuilding the other set. Not much to go wrong with these hubs unless they have been abused or sorely neglected.

Aaron

Jawihan

Well, I started to take the hub apart today. Couldn't get the right hand ball ring loose (don't have the special spanner and can't even find where one could be obtained via Google search) I tried the screw driver and Mallet while holding the right flange in a vise---couldn't budge it. The indentations are crescent shaped (not square notches) so the screw driver blade slips. Does anyone in this forum of vast knowledgeable people have a solution?
Thanks
James

JohnDThompson 

The half-round notches suggest to me a relatively new hub. BikeToolsEtc found me this one for my S3X hub:



It can't hurt to shoot them an email to see if they have one for your hub.

Dan Burkhart 

My tool of choice for this is a large brass punch. The tip of the punch will deform just enough to get a good purchase on the notch and out it comes.

Dan Burkhart 

That tool will work fine for a S3X I'm sure because there is no torque transmitted to the ball ring when riding in any gear, so the ball ring will not tighten down when riding. This is not the case for regular 3 speed or 5 speed hubs. I'd be interested to see how that spanner works on a ball ring that is really torqued in the threads as it often takes quite a bit of impact to loosen it.