What's the question?

The question is, does this make sense to you? Forgive me for being cagey, I don't want to draw your attention to anything in particular, but I will say, this drawing does not make sense to me. If you know what the inside of a hub looks like, look at the drawing, and ... what do you think?

(Just noticed this thread is in "Classic & Vintage". I came to it through a search. That explains your response.) :rolleyes:

As my inquiry post indicated, I'm using my SA 3spd in a very unique way; 2spd with granny low on an eMTB.

http://i.imgur.com/R9C23P6.jpg

Hoping to locate a pair of sliding dropouts that will fit a Soma B-Side with an axle slot only the thickness of the flat sides of the axle (~8mm). Soma and Paragon dropouts are 10mm and the torque twist washers with single tab aren't cutting the mustard on my vertical drops. Maybe some of the experienced 3-speeders in this thread will know if there are any out there to be had?

FYI: Nice bike you posted up there! :thumb:

Omg
 

I DID IT!!! Yes, I completed reading the entire thread! All 13,000+ posts/550 pages! In the time it took me to read this (on and off over a number of weeks), I have bought 3 Raleighs (pics to come), completely tearing down and rebuilding two of them. I have built the DIY cotter press from Harbor Freight (works great by the way), rebuilt hubs, built new wheels - wait - I have bought 4 Raleighs (donor parts bike) and sold 1... In addition to the wrenching, have put on (along with my wife) more than 100 miles on these great bikes in the last month.

Thanks to all who have contributed. Haven't posted in over 6 years, but this thread and these bikes have me back on this board...

Good job but if you're looking for a challenge go to Adventure Rider in the Thumpers forum and read the DR650 thread. Should only take you about 14 times as long.

http://advrider.com/index.php?thread...thread.135295/

You got a fever! And the only prescription is more 3 speeds!

Everything was going along well with my 73 Sports project until I took the AW apart today. These pawl pins are rusted solid. Soaking in an acetone AT fluid mix now. We'll see. The hub shell is in very good shape on the outside so this was a bit of a surprise.

Attachment 580631

Oh man - don't look at that! Since I posted last here, I have "cured" myself of buying Honda twins as well... Down to one ('74 CL360) in the garage (well, not counting the two others in parts).

Especially the axle nuts. Pretty sure that's a three speed. Duomatics were first made in '64.

I've actually seen that several times on hubs of all different ages. Water can get in by riding a lot in very wet conditions, from flooding, or even from leaving the filler cap open and exposed to the weather. It doesn't take much water to rust the innards because it doesn't want to drain once in there. The hub shells have fairly good chrome usually and that can be cleaned, but the interior is not rust-proofed, so once the water is in, the rust starts up.

Well, it goes to show you never know what you'll find until you open up a hub. Looks perfect on the outside. It will be a little disappointing if I can't get the pins out. I won't be able to call it a 50 dollar bike. I'm not going to sacrifice any of the good 50s hubs I have for this. Still, it is a good bike. Well worth putting another 50 bucks into if I have to.

Whew, after an all night soaking I was able to pry the pawl pins up enough to grab the top with pliers and pull them out. Got everything degreased and soaking in Evaporust now. All the parts except the pawl springs look reusable. I'd better replace the other pawl springs too. They're .011 inch wire. I have some .012 guitar strings, they'll do.

@BigChief after you're done with it, it will sing a pretty tune!

@BigChief - I love it! It will be fine. FYI a Dremel tool with a small stainless steel wire brush attatchment does with Nedra with stuff like that. Wear a mask though, otherwise you'll inhale rust.

I'd appreciate a description of how you do this! If you can manage photos, that would be great; but whatever.

That would be nice. The only thing I have here are those toothbrush shaped brass brushes. There is a Dremel tool at my old shop. Maybe I could reacquisition it :D

This shape isn't too difficult to form since I have an original to copy. I'll chuck different drills in my bench vise and wrap wire around them until I match that radius. Then I'll see how far to wrap the wire around the drill until I match the end that comes off the radius at an angle. The other side is straight. Then I'll make those two bends with needle nose pliers and cut to length.
My problem now is that the only .012 wire I have goes with sets of expensive strings for my acoustic guitar. The bulk packs I bought for my electric go from .010 to .013. .013 would be quite a bit stiffer than the original.011. I'm reluctant to go lighter with the .010.

I hear you! I wonder if I have any broken strings kicking around...

You can get individual strings on eBay reasonably cheap:

Professional 150XL/.304mm Guitar String 0.012in Musical Extra Light 88MM | eBay

Might take a while to arrive, but no harm in putting in an order sooner rather than later.

My Fleet
 

My contribution and current fleet:

Top Left - '73 Sports & Newly Aquired step thru Robin Hood. Hub says '69 on this one. Got for $20 in rough shape... New front wheel, rear rim (rebuilt with original hub), tires, full strip down and rebuild and linseed oil for the patina. Apologies for non-drive side shot. Mid-way picture on 20 mile rail-trail run...

Next - 1973 Sports in "Platinum" - have had this for 6 or 7 years. Bought from a co-worker returning to Sweden. New tires and B72. Solid bike - co-worker commuted on it year round for a number of years...

Next - His and Her's '70 Superbe's. Near mint condition! Bought from original owners with keys, racks (men's not installed), one pump, B66's in great shape, original Dunlop "White Sprite" tires and tubes, working Dyno hubs/lights... Unreal how nice these two are.

His and Her's in action - mid-way thru another 20 mile rail-trail run...

Finally, after complete strip down and rebuild, post past-Sunday ride. Hard to beat this ride with no one on the trail, Packer's game on the radio listening to them beat down Seattle (OK - maybe a stretch there) and a couple cold ones in the cooler.

I ended up just using the needle nose pliers to form the wire. I used the .010 guitar string I had on hand. Remember the official size is .011, but the 10 seems to work fine. All you need is a circle big enough for the pin to fit through, kinked enough so it doesn't slip backwards off the pin and that little foot up front. The Evapo-Rust worked wonders after an overnight soak. So, I'm back in business. Might take a couple evenings off from working on this. Don't want the project to be over too fast.

Attachment 580785

Musical pawl springs - too cool for school Big Chief :) - I love the innovation on this thread! I'm very impressed with the evaporust clean-up too - that hub was looking POTUS orange :lol:

Looking at your fleet jungwiar - Raleigh did choose some really nice colours. That darker grey platinum is classy. And the other colours I've seen on this thread too - the light metallic blues, the golds, silver, and of course the shades of green, make for very good-looking bikes. With my DL-1 stripped down to bare metal I was very tempted to go with a darker green 'british racing green'. But I've stuck with black, and currently 1/2way through randyjawas brush painting advice.

rhm - I have two S5 hubs but I can't tell what is wrong with the image (nice image btw) - please share what you've seen?

Here's a pretty one.

https://richmond.craigslist.org/bik/...306909625.html

1963 LADIES ROYCE UNION 3 SPEED - $149 (CHESTER)

https://images.craigslist.org/00u0u_...Bb_600x450.jpg

NICE SHAPE

The $50.00 Superbe
 

Someone before me spent a little bit of money on this bike before I got it last weekend.
Not sure if they spent wisely....
I posted before that it appears someone tried to re-furbish the rear hub and had only succeeded in wrecking it.
The sun gear was completely ground down...
And the hub was way too tight. The adjustable cone side had the locknut and washer reversed as well.
The headset has been replaced and the chain and cables are new.
It also has a suspension seat post.
In any case, it's back on the road and I may take it to work for a while to get around on.
Attachment 580878

Attachment 580879

Attachment 580880

Today, even a bike shop can make these mistakes. Some mechanics have never worked on an old-type AW, and think they need to run fully tight like many modern hubs (zero play, and totally locked down). The old AWs run loose by today's standards and have pretty wide bearing tolerances, provided you set up the hub centering correctly by backing off the drive side cone by the 1/4 turn the manual calls for. It all goes to hell if you just max-tight down but the drive and non-drive cones. Then you have a hub running gears not properly aligned and all jammed together.

Then the transmission breaks down and the person sells the bike (for $50 here, it's still a good buy). "I took it to a shop, and it's broken again, so this thing sucks!".

I once worked on a bike fresh from a shop that was having issues. I immediately saw: (1) the front hub was on backwards and (2) the cones were set up all wrong on both the front and the back.

I think you nailed it. In this case both wheels were tight!
The sad sun pinion below.
Attachment 580886
On the plus side the wheels are reasonably true, Dynohub works and the paint is presentable.