Dilldog

Alright, the bike I just grabbed for my wife has a 3 speed hub on it. Its labeled as a Strumey Archer Classic 30. Im wondering about any need for maintenance on this hub, particularly lubrication requirements. Im kinda concerned about this as this bike was a bike share bike in Seattle, so im sure its had LOTS of use and in LOTS of water. Also if anyone has an exploded view of this hub and or a walk through with tear down and reassembly that would be great, should I need to pull it down and clean/lube it.
I should add, I have seen a few videos about other Sturmey Archer hubs and if this one is more or less the same as the older 3 speed hubs, its well within my mechanical ability to tear into. I just dont want to be going into a small project on an assumption, and turn it into a large and frustrating project.

JoeTBM 

I had saved this (model AW) from another poster a while ago, never worked on ripping one down but kept the file just in case Not sure but I can find no direct reference for a Classic 30 model even at this sight which has other SA manuals

https://vancruisers.ca/tech/manuals/s...ervice-manuals

These Sheldon Brown ages may help as well

https://sheldonbrown.com/sutherland/CB-IGH-4-aw.pdf

Dan Burkhart 

I've never actually seen one labeled Classic 30. Model numbers for modern 3 speeds follow a format such as S-RF3 for the standard non brake version, S-RC3 for the coaster brake model and so on.
Since it was a bike share bike, I will assume it was the modern design which was a redesign of the older AW model.
Here is a blowup of the modern production unit.
https://www.sturmey-archer.com/files/...0AW%20SRF3.pdf
As far as lube requirements, if you are concerned about the current condition of the hub, you could extract the internal assembly as a unit without disassembling it to check for corrosion.
Given the history of the hub, that would be a good idea.
The prescribed lube for modern production Sturmey Archer hubs, manufactured without an oil fill cap. is Castrol CLS 00 semi fluid grease. This is difficult to come by in small quantities as I have found out.
I contacted the local Castrol distributor and was told this product originates in Germany, and the minimum quantity is 18 liter pails priced at $600 Canadian.
When I spoke to David at Sunrace USA, he advised me that Shimano Nexus grease is a suitable alternative which is available in small quantities.I have used this in the past.
This also suggests that any NLGI 00 semi fluid grease should be suitable regardless of brand.
I have also oil lubricated many gear hubs that were intended to be grease lubricated with excellent results. I have a X-RF5 5 speed that I dunked the internal assembly in ATF several years ago, and it has been working flawlessly. About once a year, I remove the indicator spindle and inject a small amount of ATF..
I also have a hub lubed with a 80 neutral base oil, also no issues. The lube formulation requirements are very flexible for an application like this.

Moe Zhoost

I've been using Stens NGLI-00 grease for my Sunrace Sturmey hubs. Amazon has it for about $20 for a one quart bottle; which will last you a long, long time. I do put regular grease on the axle bearings though.

Are you having any problem with the hub? If it's shifting ok and the bearings spin fine without any noise, I'd recommend just using it. Of course, if you're a curious bloke like me, opening it up to take a look is ok. Just don't keep your wife waiting for her bike too long.

tcs

Sturmey-Archer tips:

https://bikesmithdesign.com/SA/SA-tips.pdf

Official service manual on non-official web site:

Sturmey Archer S-RF3 ? Vancruisers.ca

1956 Master shop manual

https://hadland.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/saaw.pdf

1960 Master shop manual

https://www.sturmey-archerheritage.co...s/view-837.pdf

Earliest known NIG drawing, 1984 - does not contain actuator plate!

https://www.sturmey-archerheritage.co.../pic-135.1.jpg

Brilliant video by renaissance genius:


SunRace Sturmey-Archer has published in various official factory documents that their SA103A gear grease is an NLGI #00 and suggested Castrol Impervia TR Light as a commercial equivalent. Many American lawnmower repair shops carry NLGI #00 in 4 oz tubes as Snapper 7061017 or Stens 770-123. Sturmey says their SA103B bearing grease is an NLGI #2 and offers one commercial equivalent is Castrol LMX.

Sta-Lube blue marine grease (a hydrophobic NLGI #2 grease) is formulated for boat trailer axles and is a fine choice for the ball bearings and labrinth seals.

IGHs were traditionally lubricated with oils and have a history of giving excellent service used that way. The Kyle/Berto drivetrain tests suggested that oil lubrication was more efficient than grease lubrication by a small amount.

Sturmey-Archer no longer offers their private branded Cycle Oil. 3-in-One's Motor Oil with the blue label (NOT 3-in-One's Multi-Purpose Oil with the black label) is probably our closest modern equivalent to those little Cycle Oil bottle of yore.

75W-90 (& synthetic) gear oil is arguably the ne plus ultra IGH oil. (Note: the viscosity of gear oils is measured differently than motor oil - this is NOT "three times as thick" as 30wt motor oil. At the same temperature, it runs through a viscometer about like10W-30 motor oil.)

If the IGH uses oil lubrication, some recommend a soap-based grease (that Sta-lube blue marine grease or Park Poly-Lube or tan automotive grease have all received votes) on the labyrinth seals/grease channels to minimize weeping and water ingress.

Some feel that Phil's Tenacious Oil is too heavy for IGH pawl springs, especially in colder weather. Others have used it with no problems and swear by it.

There have been many recommendations for IGH oil lubrication with automotive automatic transmission fluid, a high-quality oil common in America. It’s not all the same stuff, and some automatic transmission fluid can be very lightweight, running through a viscometer like 3wt motor oil. Numerous reports on the `net say automatic transmission fluid improves shifting and cold weather performance. I am not aware of any reports to confirm this lightweight lubricant adequately protects against wear in high mileage, long term use IGHs, or conversely of any complaints of unusual wear.

Brucey of the CTC forums said (10/26/13) this of ATF as an IGH lubricant: “BTW, for a lubricant, ATF has the virtues that it is oily, readily available, and pretty cheap to buy. It is however, not an especially good lubricant for slowly moving, highly loaded gear trains. Better than that is gear oil, and probably better again is (the right kind of) semi-fluid grease.

BTW, after the war when times were hard and there were shortages of everything, Sturmey-Archer officially told their customers that if they'd stay on top of their maintenance, they could keep their IGHs going with sewing machine oil, using Vaseline (!) in the labyrinth seals. I guess it worked; many of those 60+ year-old AWs and FWs are still giving good service today.

And lastly, everybody's favorite: that little bottle of 3-in-One you probably have out in the garage. "3-in-One" debuted during the first great bike boom in 1894, making it one of the oldest cycling products you can still buy. The oil was originally intended for bicycle chains, and the name indicated it "1) cleaned, 2) lubricated and 3) rust proofed", hence, 3-in-One. After 115 years, you could do worse for chain lubrication.

3-in-One (original formulation, now marketed under the descriptor Multipurpose Oil, with the black label) contains a vegetable-based component, citronella oil (ever notice the way 3-in-One smells?), which will go rancid, break down and turn into very much a non-lubricant. This residue would get cleaned off a chain in the next application, but when enclosed in a small metal shell it has nowhere to go. Probably more Sturmeys have been rendered inoperable by 3-in-One residue than for any other reason. The 3-in-One folks themselves do not list hub gears as a potential use for their Multipurpose Oil, which remains widely available.

Fun fact: In the 1920s, pioneer American Birth control advocate Margaret Sanger was married to the president of the 3-in-One Oil company, J. Noah Slee. She smuggled illegal European-made diaphragms into the USA in secretly coded barrels of the citronella oil imported by 3-in-One.

dedhed

NLGI #00 grease is available many places. It is often substituted by car/truck/tractor restorers in steering gear boxes with poor seals.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/pr...ndle-grease-00

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/SME706612

I personally run 10-30 synthetic motor oil in my 1967 S-5 hub with an oil port.

Gresp15C

Likewise here for regular motor oil or automatic transmission fluid in early 60's AW hubs. I think the hubs are actually quite forgiving of the oil type, so long as it doesn't contain something that turns into gum. The new oil washes out the old, and keeps that nice black rust-proof coating on the outer hub shell.

Dilldog

Wow, thanks. The info you all gave me is more than I had hoped for honestly.
Now back to the hub, so I just went off of what I saw quickly glancing at the bike, the shifter is where I got classic 30, but even that was wrong, lol. The shifter is labeled S30 Classic. Anyway I actually looked at the hub and what do you know in big black bold letters its labelled AW. As far as the grease goes, getting the right stuff shouldnt be too hard. Spokane is a big transportation and agriculture town.

JohnDThompson 

Are you having a problem with the hub that would justify tearing it open and rebuilding it? Perhaps all it needs is a little routine lubrication. Older AW hubs had an oil port, into which you drip a teaspoon or so of oil every few months. Newer hubs lack the oil port, but you can accomplish the same thing by unscrewing the indicator rod (part K504 in @JoeTBM's exploded diagram above) and dripping oil into the hollow axle.

Dan Burkhart 

If the the model number is printed on rather than engraved, it will be the modern production type. The modern AW is the same mechanically as the S-RF3 except the hub shell is steel rather than aluminum.
https://www.sturmey-archer.com/en/products/detail/aw

Dilldog

No the hub is working just fine. But being a mechanic I have the skill and tools to tear it down, and I vastly prefer doing preventative maintenance as opposed to waiting until there is a problem. Also I find working on bicycles and other small and relatively simple mechanical things to be very relaxing.

tcs

Sturmey-Archer introduced the AW in 1936 as a lower-cost-to-manufacture replacement for the wide-ratio K-pattern 3-speed hub. It was entirely unheralded; the big news in those years was the AR close-ratio racing hub and the FW four-speed.

In the late 1950s Sturmey tried to replace the AW with the revolutionary SW 'silent' hub. A few years later they silently dropped SW (nicknamed Seldom Works) production and went back to the AW (nicknamed Always Works).

The NIG update slowly crept into AW production on various OEM contracts between 1984 and 2001. The 75th anniversary of AW production in 2011 was...entirely unheralded.

Hours of fun history:

Sturmey-Archer Heritage :: Introduction

Dilldog

After reading some of that history I was surprised to see that Sturmey Archer was involved in motorcycling. Though I suppose I shouldnt be surprised as in the dawn of motorcycles, the two were very closely linked with many now defunct brands starting as bicycle companies. Very cool.

JohnDThompson 

Machine tools, too:


Sturmey-Archer Heritage :: History