What's All This?

With the help of Sheldon Brown's Instructions for the Sturmey Archer AG hub, and a little support from the folks on the Classic and Vintage section of Bikeforums, I disassembled my hub, cleaned it, though it did not look dirty, and put it back together.  And then I put it back together again, because I forgot that the ball ring does not screw on at end, but goes on before the driver.  Then I assembled it again, because I left the little washer out that is supposed to go between the dynamo and the hub body.  It was getting late in the day, and I was hurrying, because I knew people were hungry, and I was supposed to be cooking at that point.

Here, by the way, is the armature (on the inside), and the magnet, (around the outside):

That was the dirtiest part of the whole hub, but you are not supposed to remove the armature from the magnet without the elusive, no longer produced, keeper ring.  Doing so will result in the loss of magnetism, though no one has explained to me why.  I've never owned a magnet that just up and became demagnetized. I cleaned the surface, but I did not take it apart.  I couldn't even get the case that the magnet is sitting in off of it.

I was worried that, since it wasn't all gunky and rusty inside, cleaning it wouldn't solve my shifting problem.  I am happy to report that it did.

I've been fiddling with the adjustment of the bearings quite a bit, and I may not be finished.  You're supposed to back off from the drive side cup a half-turn from finger tight, and then do all the fine adjusting from the other side.  With the dynamo, however, everything is sluggish and notchy, so it's hard to tell if your bearings are loose enough.  On my first try, it wouldn't move much at all - clearly not right.  I played around with loosening the non-drive side, to the point where there was a tiny bit of play in the wheel.  That worked much better, but it seemed to be binding in one part of the rotation.  I wondered if I did not loosen the drive side enough when I set it, so I redid the drive side, and now it moves much more smoothly.  It's probably good to go, but I am bad about leaving well enough alone. 

Other things needing fixing are now apparent.  There are a couple of good dents in the rear rim, so it goes whump, whump, whump when you brake, and the brake arm closest to the seat stays whacks against the stay while braking.  I think those old steel rims can be whacked back in shape, but I've done enough for one night.

There are also oil ports in the bottom bracket and the front hub.  I'll have to do some digging around to see what to do about keeping everything oiled.

But, in general, I'm happy to get this far.  It is now a largely functional three speed, (except for the whump, whump of the dented rim).

I'm going to get the old standard light bracket and outfit it with some Busch and Muller lights.  I also need a new B-66, but that will have to wait until next month's budget.  (The lights probably the month after that, when it is becoming light enough I won't need them often).

And of course this blog is supposed to be about the Happy Little Three Speed Bicycle.  It's sitting over to the side feeling a little jealous.