Slash5

I'm fixing up a Schwinn Racer with a SA 3 speed rear hub. Just about ready to recable. The little white plastic cable housing stop is missing and none of the local LBS carry it. Don't want to order just that so figure I'll make one from aluminum. Could someone tell me what size the two diameters are?

Dan Burkhart 

Where in Southern Ontario are you? I think I have some of those here if I understand what you are talking about.

Andrew R Stewart 

It should be fairly easy to measure the clamp and tube combo to get pretty close dimensions for a fulcrum sleeve. Remember that they have a flat surface that contacts the tube. Since it's not really an important aspect of the shifting the actual dimensions are not that vital. But the ability to fit the cable casing and hold tight on the tube with the clamp are what counts. Even common der cable stops will work if the shift cable can be threaded through all and clamped with an anchor bolt at the indicator chain.

But the OEM sleeve is the neat solution. Andy.

FBinNY 

The OEM fulcrum was an elegant solution back when SA cables were pre-assembled with the the fittings at both ends and simply slid together with no tools. They allowed the cable to slide through the clamp without any disassembly needed.

These days most cables use an anchor bolt at the rear adjusting barrel negating the need for this part. Insteas any clamp on cable stop can be used, and the cable threaded the same way we do on derailleur bikes. Also many modern clamp on stops have side slots, which deliver the same functionality as the original design.

JohnDThompson 

If I understand correctly, you need a fulcrum clip sleeve. The plastic sleeves do have a tendency to disintegrate with age, so a metal sleeve is better. Gentleman Cyclist sells stainless steel sleeves that are quite nice and should last a lifetime or more.

Dan Burkhart 

That is what I was picturing he was talking about. I've got plastic versions of that.

Slash5

Thanks, I'm in Hamilton so not far. It will only take a moment to make one, plus it's an opportunity to play in the workshop. Need a change from scrubbing, cleaning and polishing. Hard, messy work when you can't work outside and stuck in the basement.It's tricky to get a good measurement with the "D" shape of the spot in the bracket.
FBinNY, I hadn't thought of that. Making one will be easy, only thing I was wondering about was putting the slot in, as you say, I don't really need the slot. I am planning to make a cable with the proper ends following the instructions I've seen here. Picked up the brass tubing from the hobby shop.

Dan Burkhart 

OK, well if you have any issues, I've got lots of those,various fulcrum clips and hardware for all things Sturmey Archer.

Slash5

Thanks, I'm sure I'll be seeing you. A month ago I had never had hands on a SA 3 speed hub. Now, I've got 4 of them with one more or less finished. One of the projects will hopefully be a path racer inspired bike - it will need cable routing parts.
Something to do for the winter. If the wife does a bike count in the basement I'm a dead man.

FBinNY 

Dan,

You can date bike mechanics by the material of their SA fulcrums. For decades these were made of sintered metal and lasted forever. Then in the late sixtiies in one of the firsts of replacing a reliable metal with a cheaper plastic part SA started making these out of a molded plastic. Probably would have been fine, but they opted for a vinyl material that was too soft. These routinely would extrude themselves through the clip and get ejected out the back to be lost forever.

Nowadays they're molded of a more appropriate grade of plastic which seems to do the job. My advice to anybody buying a used bike with the older grey plastic part is to prepare by buying your replacement now before you need it.

Dan Burkhart 

I believe the current production parts are Delrin or something similar. I have had no issues with them deforming.

FBinNY 

Yes, the white ones are of a harder grade of plastic, maybe Delrin (Nylon), and as I said seem more than adequate to the task.

JohnDThompson 

The problem I've had with the plastic sleeves is as they age they become brittle and crumble. At some point, you shift into third gear, no tension on the cable, and pieces of the sleeve jiggle out of the clip and are lost. Then you try to shift into a lower gear and nothing happens.

N.B. I haven't tried the recent production plastic sleeves. I got my hands on a stash of the old metal ones and refitted my fleet with them.

FBinNY 

Like us.


Yup, even for such a simple part, steel is real.

I also have old sintered fulcrums, and otherwise use clips made for derailleurs.

Slash5

I found one to measure on a chainstay clamp on another bike.
The flange is .40 and the body is .34, overall length .47. Flange is .05 thick. A 3/32 drill works for the cable and a 13/64 for the housing.

Dan Burkhart 

Marvelous. I'm assuming you have access to a lathe and a milling machine?

Slash5

Yep, nothing fancy and I'm not that good with them. Nice to have something simple like this to make.

Gresp15C

This looks like a cool use for one of those little 3-d printers.

okane

....much of what you may need in the future can be found here;

Rims, Wheels & Parts - Hub Small Parts + Accessories - Internally Geared Hub Parts - Niagara Cycle

Sturmey Archer Brake Fulcrum Clip .30"

My last order I got 3 of the stops just in case as I have 3 SA bikes and frequently find them at yard sales, etc.

Slash5

I'm planning on a order from Niagara once I'm further along my refurb and racer project. Need to make the best use of the shipping costs. There is a local store that has a surprising stock of SA parts but no stops. And now I've got Dan as a resource.

Andrew R Stewart 

There was a period when SA hubbed bikes lost favor and Shimano became far more popular. We could argue whether this was for the better or not but at least Shimano's cable stop/fulcrum sleeve did interchange with the SA one. I have replaced many (many) SA sleeves with the Shimano ones over the years and find them to be far more durable then the SA plastic ones.

I do have a few metal SA ones in my stash and will never get rid of them.

And just for fun here's a shot of the bike I built around the Alloy shelled AW I got many decades ago then sat on my shelf until I was ready to build the frame to fit it. I decided to fab my own cable pulley. It's from the ultra light "airplane" field, used for control wires as I understood. Andy.