Sturmey Archer AW hub cable length

Plumby Baby

Helloooooooo,

Yes I appreciate that this is prob in the wrong thread but frankly there is more traffic in my elasticated pants than there is in the 'The Workshop'.

I'm restoring an old BSA 3 speed (found in a skip - cashback!!) and need to put a new gear cable on it going from the trigger control (handle bar), along the top tube and over the pully (under the seat) and then down along the seat stay to the indicator chain. I've brought the 'universal cable' set and all seems well but, and I may be being incredibly dim here, but I don't know how much cable to use?

Do I need to cut it? Suppose the prob I have is I don't know how much tension needs to be in the cable.

Anyone done this before?

hatbeard

if it doesn't reach from the shifter to the hub, you've used too little.

Plumby Baby

Beautiful tip.

veronese68

The cable tension needs to be such that the pin the little chain pulls out of the hub is flush with the bit it comes out of when in a particular gear. I can't remember which gear though. I will check tonight or do a quick Google now for you. I'll post again when I can be of some actual use.

veronese68

Try this:
When in gear 2 the end of the little rod the chain pulls on should be flush with the end of the axle when looking through the hole in the side of the nut. Get the cable adjustment about right and then fine tune with the barrel adjuster.

Plumby Baby

That's brill. Thanks very much!!! Appreciate you taking the time.

Good karma innit. 8)

veronese68

No problem. I'll try to check in the book tonight to make doubly sure. Hope it works. I use an old '70s 3 speed folder to pop to the shops on. I got a funny look parking it in the flash Specialized Concept Store in Kingston on Saturday. Made me chuckle though.

t4tomo

sheldon brown has a good section on setting up SA hubs. I followed that setting up an 80's Puch for the Mrs.

http://sheldonbrown.com/sturmey-archer/adj.html

Don't cut the inner cable until you tested it all, just leave the excess hanging out of the toggle adjuster. Your outers length depend where the cable stops are - yours sounds like a long run from the last cable stop to the hub, similiar to the Puch.

Plumby Baby

Thanks both of you. That's helped no-end! Once the pulley arrives from SJS Cycles I'll be going for it.

Patience on stand-by.

veronese68

Forgot to look in the book last night. It's not hard once you've done it once, as with most things.

ddraver

Veronese - do you know anyhing about servicing them - i have a horribly old one on my Dutch bike which won't work because there is too much friction to pull the chain around the nut!

veronese68

No, sorry. I was told not to go into them as it's horribly complicated. The old ones have a plug that you can oil them through. If the friction is internal I would fill it with a thin oil, let that soak in then try to get that out and put the correct oil in. If no oil port try to get some light oil to run down the chain. It's probably just that something has seized.
Sheldon Brown did seem to have a few comments about them. Have a dig around on his site. Got a customer on the phone and can't look right now.

t4tomo

Veronese68 wrote:

. If no oil port try to get some light oil to run down the chain.

or unscrew the toggle chain completely and pump some oil in down that hole if you haven't got the little oil cap on it. (something like 3in1 with a penatrating action might help).