Dan Burkhart 

#19 on that exploded view.

boneshaker78

Thanks, that’s what I thought. Aaron had mentioned the keys being worn and flipping them around sometimes to make it work again.

Dan Burkhart 

Worth a try. It is symmetrical when new and does not matter which way it goes, but after some wear it might work better the other way.

boneshaker78

What’s the worst that would happen if the hub was used as it is now with 3rd and 5th not working right? I wouldn’t use 3 or 5, I would stick to the other gears. How much would it damage the hub to leave it the way it is now and use it?

boneshaker78

This is the response from SRAM in case you were interested to see what they said. I think the click sound they are referring to has to do with the freewheeling type sounds I hear. Seems as though that those types of sounds are normal. They did possibly shed some light on what might be causing 3rd to not engage.

Dan Burkhart 

Yes, totally normal to hear a ticking sound in 4th through 7th gear as the pawls on the planet carrier are outrun. If a pawl spring was the issue, it would affect all undedrive gears not just third.I am not buying that explanation.

boneshaker78

Thanks for the feedback Dan. I’d be lost without your help.

I guess the owner of the hub has decided to ride the hub without repairing the issue.

Id really like to fix it, but sourcing parts seems like a very difficult task. Best solution I found was a German ebay seller with a NOS Spectro S7 portion of the internals with the axle that would likely solve the issues.

I guess it’s case closed based on the owners wishes.

tcs

The Spectro 7 was a nice hub, with a total 303% range (Nexus 8 307%) and efficient single-stage gearing. There was carping about possible fragility of the plastic housing of the ClickBox, but that could have been addressed with an alloy or even Zamak casting. I'm still baffled that SRAM just shut their IGH division down and closed it out rather than selling the intellectual property rights and tooling for the i3, P5 and S7 hubs to somebody.

Dan Burkhart 

Yeah, really a shame what they did to their IGH lineup. After investing so much in product development and introducing new products like iMotion 9 speed, which I had one of for a while, and an 8 speed model that I did not pursue, (because by then I was pretty jaded by their lack of support in the North American market) .
I got to experience up close the attitude toward gear hubs at Sram when I attended the three day STU course in Colorado springs in 2007. I was hoping to have at least a bit of exposure to that segment there, but soon learned that they did not even want to talk gear hubs or acknowledge them in any way.

boneshaker78

They seem much better supported in Europe and the surrounding countries. IGH in general seems more popular in Europe. I’m quickly becoming obsessed with this style of hub, especially when combined with roller brakes or other drum brakes. They’re a hassle in some ways, but a welcomed addition when commuting in places like Buffalo where I live.

tcs

The simplistic theory is that in wetter, coldish, flatish Northern Europe [British Isles (Sturmey-Archer), Low Countries, Germany (Fichtel&Sachs), Denmark] IGHs satisfied riders' needs, while in drier, warmish, mountainish Southern Europe [France (Huret, Simplex), Spain, Italy (Campagnolo)] derailleurs were the choice.

Well, whatever.

Anyway, SRAM IGH came from their buy-out of Sachs-Huret to get Huret's derailleur expertise, but the Sachs part descended from Fichtel&Sachs who had been building IGHs in Schweinfurt Germany since 1904. Not an exhaustive survey, but standing on a street corner in Munich for a half-hour back in 2009, I noted every ~third bike was fitted with a P5 or S7 hub.