I remember my dad buying a bike for himself when I was a kid with me at a flea market. Pretty sure is was for $25. I decided to tackle refurbishing it; it’s an old English 3 speed, Armstrong is the brand. It had a bit of surface corrosion and didn’t seem to shift at all. The idea was to just refurb it and give it back to my dad even though I don’t think he’s ridden a bike in a while. The frame is way too small for me.
Never worked on an internal gear hub so I had to do some research. After scrubbing away a bit of the surface rust and grime, I saw it was a sturmey archer AW model three speed with two 7’s on it; my best guess is that it’s a 1977 model. Luckily Sheldon Brown has some extensive info. Links I used:
http://sheldonbrown.com/sturmey-archer_3-spd.html
http://oldbikeblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-adjust-sturmey-archer-three.html?m=1
http://sheldonbrown.com/sturmey-archer/aw.html
http://hadland.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/saaw.pdf
http://vancruisers.ca/Members/bhughes/tech-stuff/sturmey/troubleshooting-sturmey-archer-3-speed-hubs
http://hadland.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/aw.pdf
http://bosrug2.blogspot.com/2012/01/raleigh-project-one-sturmey-archer-aw.html
this exploded diagram is the best one:
http://sheldonbrown.com/sutherland/CB-IGH-4-aw.pdf
http://chestercycling.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/servicing-a-sturmey-archer-aw-hub/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6v5K-2zWMI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Do6v5K-2zWMI&app=desktop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUx-NrIpHIw
this link came in handy for adjusting the shift cable, brakes and front wheel hub, all of which have some old englsih bike eccentricities:
http://sheldonbrown.com/sturmey-archer_tech.html#adjustment
So after reading up a bit I started off with some wd-40 and fine steel wool scrubbing and the began tackling the sturmey archer AW hub which i realized need to be overhauled. Here’s some of what I saw:
internally it seemed ok, no loose springs or very much rust but i did see the clutch sleeve was not moving freely around the axle, it had gunked up with some white stuff somehow, maybe due to lack of oil etc. that’s my guess as to why it wasn’t shifting. So I scrubbed and got it moving freely again.
here’s a closeup of the sleeve and clutch.
closeup of the hub shell. the little ridges in the far end engage the spring loaded pawls.
The cog and driver which i didn’t bother taking apart. just cleaned it up.
cleaned out.
loaded all the internals back into the hub, put it back on the bike, attached the shifter cable and after playing with the tension a bit, it shifts really well! still not sure how it creates the 3 ratios but it works and that’s all that matters to me.
I then worked on the front hubs (you have to make sure the round cone is on a certain side, see one of the sheldon brown links above) and the brakes. The front brake is a bit stubborn, is seems kind of loose around the center bolt and I’m having trouble keeping one pad from rubbing against the wheel but I’ll figure that out later. The wheels themselves needed a bit of truing and rust scrubbing (I even put some primer on the rim interior then laid on some cloth rim tape).
But in the end the bike is in decent shape.
G-Man's Connecticut Bike Blog 