buck mulligan

After three solid months of work, I've finally finished rebuilding my 1972 "All-Gold Edition" Raleigh. I tore it down to loose parts and cleaned, polished, and lubricated every last bit of it. My wife thought I was crazy when she saw me using an old jeweler's screwdriver like it was a dental tool to get all of the hardened grime from the tight spaces around the spokes on the rear hub flanges, but it was worth it.

Now I have a lot of adjusting and piddly details to square away. In particular, the SA hub needs to be dialed in - as it stands right now, I have a two-speed (it's freewheeling in 1st gear; I'm guessing it's not supposed to do that). The brakes also need a bit of attention, and I'm having a bear of a time getting the seatpost tightened enough.

All that notwithstanding, I took it for a short ride yesterday afternoon with my son and our neighbors. Just a short, four mile jaunt to a local park overlooking Puget Sound. And that's when I discovered the other "component" that needs work - my legs! It's embarrassing how much they ached after such a short ride. Fortunately, spring is here and I'll get plenty of opportunities to ride, even if it's only to the pub and back.

Thanks to all of you on the C&V forum. Lurking (and, occasionally, participating) here gave me much of the knowledge and - probably even more importantly - motivation I needed to get the job done. Pics to follow soon!

gbalke

Can't wait to see pics of the Gold Sports, lots of them as required by the C&V bylaws. As far as your wife thinking that you are crazy, that will pass; she will KNOW you are crazy. But then again, most of us here are. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

buck mulligan

Okay, here are some photos:


The full monty.


New cork grips and trigger shifter (to replace the awful twist-grip shifter).


Heron chain ring, all clean and shiny.


I got the shift cable pulley second hand - I guess that's called "patina."


It looks so different without all the crud caked in every nook and cranny.


Look at that hub gleam!

Of course, the real work doesn't show in the photos - old grease cleaned out, bearings replaced, spoke nipples soaked with penetrating oil so they will actually move - you know the drill.

gitarzan

Beautiful. Nice job, all that work paid off. What's the wife think now?

wahoonc

Awesome job!

That is the first gold Raleigh I have seen with a matching Prestube rack.

Aaron

Andrew F

Beautiful ride! I had the same problem with my seat post, I ended up cutting a strip from a beer can as a shim, worked perfectly and have but several hundred miles on the bike since without a problem. I would suggest practicing on about 5 cans before you cut the actual shim, it's best to use fresh cans, so you will have to empty them yourself.:

echotraveler

thats very very very nice!

sailorbenjamin

I love that color. Never seen a gold one that clean. It goes great with chrome.

buck mulligan

Thanks for the props, all. And Andrew, thanks for the tip re: cutting a shim from a beer can. I actually learned that trick from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, back when I was in high school.

But now I have a real problem - I've posted this over in the Mechanics forum, but not getting much feedback there. Right now, I have no first gear. Using both the "official" Sturmey Archer visual inspection method and the unofficial Sheldon Brown tension method, the adjustment appears to be pretty close to right. Second and third gears work fine, and there is a "neutral," freewheeling position in between the two, as there is supposed to be. But there is no first gear - it just freewheels.

My guess is that there is something wrong with the low gear pawls and/or springs, requiring that I tear the hub down (again!). Obviously, I'm not looking forward to it. Before I dig in, can anyone think of anything I'm not thinking of? Anything at all that might help me resolve this issue without repeating the whole overhaul?

HSean

Might just be an adjustment with the barrel adjuster on the indicator chain? thats common on 3 speeds. sometimes they come loose.

nlerner

It could be your trigger as the spring might not be strong enough to pull that much cable. Or any chance you put the low-gear pawls in backwards when you last overhauled the hub? Been there, done that.

Neal

buck mulligan

That's exactly what I'm afraid I might have done. If I had, would it simply freewheel, without any ratcheting/clicking sounds or anything?

385xza

I had a similar problem recently and believe it or not it ended up the length of the indicator rod being to long for the particular hub (It must have been swapped at some point) There are 2 lengths for th AW hub I had a spare short one which I fitted and all the adjustments then fell into place as per Sheldons advice.

385XZA

Maddox

Beautiful job with the restoration! And I hate to be a negative nancy...

But those fender-mount bolts really need a soak in Oxalic acid, or to be cleaned up with some lemon juice and steel wool.

The hub is beautiful, but those bolts are eyesores.

buck mulligan

I considered taking a more aggressive approach with the rust on the fasteners, but ultimately I decided to simply give them a thorough going-over with a wire wheel on a Dremel tool and call it good (yes, I actually cleaned every single bolt, nut, and washer with the wire wheel - another thing that led my wife to conclude that I was crazy). I figured that even if I managed to make them entirely rust-free, it would just come back since there is no chrome left to protect them from the Seattle humidity. For the time being, I'm satisfied simply having the wrenching surfaces smooth and the threads clean and dressed. Later, if I want to, I figure I can replace the worst of them.

noglider 

Very nice. Looks like it's hardly been ridden. The mens model is rarer than the womens.

brianinc-ville

Suh-weet!

buck mulligan

...and, it looks like we have a winner! The pawls were, in fact, installed backwards. Boy, do I feel dumb! I won't know for sure that the problem is solved until I get the wheel back on the bike and ride it again, but based on my experiments manipulating the indicator and spinning the cog by hand, it seems to be fixed. Thanks for the tip!

So I think I'll celebrate with a couple more pictures....


The brakes cleaned up nicely, as did the chrome around the headset and those wonderful little fork dimples.


Another view of the re-routed shift cable (including pulley), and the Prestube rack.


Front hub looking almost good as new.

buck mulligan

Blast and tarnation!!!

I still don't have first gear. I am absolutely desperate - can anyone suggest what I should try next? It worked fine before I overhauled it (well, except for the whole "sticky and gummy because it was full of old, nasty grease" thing) - and now 2nd and 3rd work great, but low gear just freewheels. HELP!!!