Sturmey Archer AW 3 Speed Hub - Full Strip & Rebuild Of A Seized Hub 

I know you're all expecting the Part 2 of both the Raleigh Record Sprint and Path Racer build. Path Racer should be done and ready for next week but I've ran in to a few complications with the decals on the Record Sprint. They're going to need some careful handling to fit properly

i just bought an aw hub for a small price from ebay. i bought it as a practice hub to see how to dismantle it, service it and put everything back together again without having the worry about making any mistakes on it since i have never known how to do this kind of service. my 82 aw hub needs a service judging by what i have learnt while watching these series of hub videos. thanks for taking the time to produce these videos as they are much appeached in there giving us clear insight on how to do the task in hand correctly.

I have a BikeE with an EcoSpeed electric motor conversion. My hub has been complaining a bit so I’m glad you showed us how easy they are to clean and rebuild! Cheers!!

I really enjoyed this video. Thank you. I actually found myself holding my breath as you were installing the pawls in the gear cage ... that's how immersive I found it. Well done.

Having just watched this, I now feel confident enough to have a go at mine. I'm in the process of restoring a 1936 New Hudson. Great video!

Top channel youve got for us and anyone else who loves a vintage bike.

Very impressive restoration - enjoyed watching.

Thanks for this. Used it to dismantle and clean the hub from a lovely old rod brake Dutch Gazelle I bought and gave to my son's Danish girlfriend. It had lost all drive and when I took it apart it was all rusty like yours. All cleaned now and just waiting for new pawl springs since a old one broke. hopefully it will tick along nicely when rebuilt.

Great video. You are a ‘mender’ and that is a title that’s becoming a rarity in today’s part changing culture.

Fantastic, Useful Video. Well Done! You explain it so well. Pleasure to watch.

I've opened up several of my own internal gear hubs and what i find fascinating is the engineering not only in its function and mechanisms, but their assembly requires virtually no clips and fasteners. Nearly everything is held into position by another piece that prevents it from simply falling out. These days, if you look at mechanisms on a bike (derailleurs, cassettes, brake calipers, etc), everything is held in together with threaded screws, bolts, and rivets.

Another excellent video, clearly explained and demonstrated, removed some of the mystery of the S A hub, Thankyou.

I now have no fears with overhauling my SA hub! Thank you.

Great video, think I will be watching this with greasy fingers in the next few days 😅

its amazing how many people ignore sheldons instruction NOT to use grease!!! People are amazed at how well these things wear maybe because its an OIL lubricated mechanism. Grease can and does dry out and things dont move so well......

Thanks for a very well made “ instructional “ video .Watching your step by step rebuild has motivated me to do up my frozen ‘52 Sturmey Archer 3 speed . I have studied “ exploded view “ schematic drawings of the hub ( looks intimidating ) , but actually watching the process has certainly eased my worries about it , you make it look so simple . Thanks again !

Couple of points on these. The 1950's official service instructions are far better and easier to follow than those published later. Well worth seeking out. And with the later hubs, it is the 36 hole shells that are worth keeping. 28 & 24 hole ones are everywhere, so if your AW is rusted up or worn out, you only need to fit good internals from a scrap 28 hole wheel, and off you go. Plenty of neglected kids bikes and nasty foreign folders still being dumped with the AW the only useful part on them.

Great video! That tick does sound good, way more audible than the newer AW hub I have.

This and the bearing service video are amazing, thank you so much for making them. I've got a 1989 AW hub which I began a bearing service on today having watched the other video. I think I'm going to have to give the full job a go tomorrow having seen this.

Absolutely awesome!

Very well done and useful. Many thanks.

Great video, well done. i really like the SA tick as well.

I love hub gears and have always been afraid to pull them apart.- until now. Thank you.

a pleasure to watch a skilled mechanic at work

TIP: to remove the drive side outer if hub is not on a rim like yours is, get a flat piece of wood about 3/4in thick and cut a hole in the middle (so is about same size of the hub) now cut wood in two, then place around the hub use the spoke holes to screw the wood to the hub, place wood in vice, now use hammer and punch to unlock to outer, and without damaging the hub.

Awesome video. I'm now confident to tackle my SA S2 Duomatic. Cheers!

Lovely !!

3:05 glad I checked, I almost started with the assumption that the removable race was reverse threaded. Thanks!

Sir you are the Man!!! Great vid.it helps alot !!!

Been wondering how those things worked since i was 7... Magic! Thanks a lot!

Brilliant video. Up until today I thought internal hubs were black magic. By the end of the day I have ordered new pawl springs for my 1979 Grifter rear wheel. Cheers

Excellent work. I just rebuilt a Sturmey Archer AM medium ratio hub. I'm looking forward to building it into a wheel. I love your soft jaws!

Very clear and well explained video - demystifying the IGH. I need to delve into a FW 4-speed, so this video is extremely useful. Cheers.

I think this is one of your best videos yet. Good stuff!

Thanks for the video this kind of diy is sensational 👍

Really informative video!!! Many thanks!!!

Superb!

Genius. Thank you

Great Video well explained

Great jobs

Very informative, thank you.

Thank you for de-mystifying the SA-AlwaysWorks hub for me. I said, ooh, listen to that sound, just before you did!

A VERY GOOD VIDEO UNDERSTANDBLE FOR PEOPLE THAT SEE THIS FOR THE FIRST TIME

This video is very useful for me. THANK YOU so much

Great job! My bike has the SA S2C kickback hub

Job well done.

Nice work.

great stuff! I've had a couple of SA 3 speed hubs for years and never been brave enough to open them up. this gave me confidence to - thanks 👍

👌👌👌 good job

Given a old ladies bike and found it has SA 1949 hub with screw on sprocket. The 3-speed was not connected so has run as a single speed for years. Rusty but only a couple of pawls are seized but now cleaned up and got some pawl springs on order. Great vid!

I've restored a fair few of these. The worst it was a right job getting the planet gear pins out. Another was completely missing one of the pawls, pins & spring (a more recent one without an oil hole). I'm pretty sure the one you serviced here had been taken a part by a previous owner. The spring on the wrong side would have been a massive factory error.

Thank you very much!!

Interesting video. I'd have put more lubrication in there though so that it didn't rust up again in the next ten years. It all depends on how they are used. If they are out in all weathers, that rust you so carefully removed could get going again. Nice video though. Very clear camera work made it very obvious exactly what you were doing. Good explanation too.

Brilliant job mate, really helpfull video I needed to know how to replace the Axel key.

Brilliant video just what I was looking for to service my aw hub on my vintage Rog pony....damn adverts at the exciting point though lol

What a superb instructional video, thank you! I have it all dismantled and cleaned up. New bearings, pawl springs (1 missing & 2 perished) and SA internal grease ordered. Just wondering what oil you’d recommend?

Some Evaporust would be a great help in getting rid of the rust. It really is astonishing how well it works. Thanks for sharing.

Nice job! I would like to know why you didn't but grease on the teeth on the planetary gears. That click!

If you get a chance try an ultrasonic cleaner, with whatever you use for cleaning, helps loosen up rust may have been freed up the hub so it would turn.

You start with drive side up. At 1:13 you change to none drive side up. At 1:58 without changing the hub, the drive side is up again. Magic. Further good video. In the Netherlands we are used to hubs with a drum brake, which is slightly different.

Nice informative video, have you considered placing parts in a tub of white vinegar for a few days or more, works great on removing rust from bits you cant normally reach.

That was really good. How do you know these things. Do you have a mechanical training I’m gonny lookout for one of them just to try it. Like the clamps. Are they rubber faced

I know of a place with boxes of SA hubs. Think I'll pick one up to cut my teeth on. Very good video.

Hi mate, I have watched most of your vids, really interesting, came across an issue with my speed SA, lubed & regreased all parts after complete overall as per your vid. But I now have a grinding noise coming from it mostly when backpedaling. Have you come across a similar situation & what to do to get rid of that please? Thanks in advance

Great video as I've said before when I was rebuilding my 1st AW. I am now rebuilding another one from 1954 and had a heck of a time getting the ball ring off. It would only turn one was and the gear indicator would not pull out or go back in. I finally got the ball ring off but had to take the cone all the way of as everything inside was rusted solid. The bottom pawls are frozen solid and it had alot of rust all over and the metal oil port cap was broken off and the gear chain indicator chain was barely sticking out of the whole (thank God it unscrewed because the last one I had would not). Now that is apart and soaking I will try to clean it up and get her working. Hopefully the only other thing I will need is the gear indicator chain (can you just put a new chain on the old one?). What would the part number be for this AW indicator chain be? Thanks for this video as it seems to have the same provlem. Thanks, Mike

Great video. I'm rebuilding an AW from 1964 that I picked up from ebay to take apart and play with to see how everything fits together and works and when you get to the point to unscrew the ball ring to pull the inards out from the right hand side can you put the left axle in a vice or do you have to grab ahold of the hub itself like you did and then unscrew the ball ring. I thought I saw that on another video but with the left side in a vice mine just spins, yours was obviously already loose so you didn't have to worry about it. Thanks, Mike

Can you comment on why you do not lubricate the working surfaces of any of the gear teeth. How can that be good for the life and efficiency of the transmission?

I watched this video and serviced my hub but I thought that taking all the spokes out first and then putting them back in after was a lot of work just for some grease!

Great video mate! I took my SA apart, there was a spacer missing and some sort of soft gasket. interesting! Thanks for the video. Cheers.

These videos are very enjoyable to watch. What grease do you use for the bearings? Thanks

Please explain it's internal working system, how it works in every steps of gear changing.

yo're the man !!!

Ive got a Sachs 3peed hub on a Brompton. Day uo know where I can get spares? Im after the larger ball race that fits inside. Thanks!

Lesson we've all learned the hard way; don't assume it was assembled correctly in the 1st place! Wrenching fingers over time...

Hello sir! Thank you so much for the video. Since I'm trying to restore a Raleigh Superbe, I just realised that second gear is not operational, it's like the gearbox is in neutral when you select it. I also hear what I think is the freewheel ticking all the time when I pedal, but I'm not sure is that actually producing the sound. Watching videos I kind of learned that second gear should have the sprocket and the hub rotating at the same pace, but I really don't know what to look at in the hub to make that happen. Just wanted to ask if you had any suggestion for having already experienced that kind of situation. Thank you again!

Great video , I have always liked the 3 speed hub , Strangely enough I have never managed to find one in Asia over the past 25 years ?

How do you put the small chain that changes gears in, will you have to take it apart again?

Hi 👋 How about 5 speed hup ? Is it the same way to open ? I am going to service my old bike.

Is the sprocket the right way round?

Hi , I recently acquired an AW 3speed from 1954 and I am refurbing it. It has the left -left threaded ballcap that unscrews and I can't get it to come loose. I've already disassembled the whole thing and want to get this cap of for cleaning. It was pretty frozen/rusted on the left end and I've got a new planet cage coming tomorrow. I might have to replace the left end pawls and screws as they look pretty bad, Any tips on getting the left-non drive ball cap loose and are they still available? Thanks, Mike

Do you know if there is any difference with much later models, i have a 1992 hub that i want to take apart and service like this.

Awesome video and great job restoring it. I'm just wondering, you were surprised when the spring passed through the driver. I just took apart my 1972 AW and it does the same thing. I was looking at RJ's videos and the spring stayed at the back of the driver on both the 1974 and 1954 AWs. Did you find it still shifted properly with the spring passing through to the cone?

You will have to take it apart to attach the chain that moves the clutch.

Where can one get a really old hub like this re rimmed?

Stamp wrench!

So how much torque can you put through that hub?

Hi (or anyone else) , I'm rebuilding an old AW hub I picked up off of Ebay just to get familiar with how these work and how to take apart and reassemble. I have put it back together using this video and after cleaning and I lost one of the pawl springs on the bottom left side. Someone told me that I could put it together with one pawl and bench test it on a vice since there would not be a load on it. I did not oil the hub just used spray lube for the bench test. It works fine by pulling the chain out in 2nd and 3rd but will not go into 1st gear. Could this be because I am missing one pawl and or my springs are probably original from 1964 and they are weak? Thanks, Mike

Seized Sturmey-3 you WOULD want to seize that at less than half the weight of any mo-dern 7-8spd you can bunny hop gutters yes aehy own Shimano® but that Sachs7 was a lemon to from 1995.

I see your very sparing with oiling the parts. Does that mean that I can't fill the 3 speed with grease to cut down on the ticking sound ?

Some people report flaw with this particular model : it sometimes disengages from the middle gear into the neutral. Have you experienced such a problem. Any solution to this ?

What Wii be the sdpeed In each gear ???

What size punch is that?

You took off the spring from other side 1:48 .see 23:44

seized hubs are no problem and if you like try useing what we in the USA use its called WD40 a time proven solvent/lubricant that works wonders instead of a complete time consuming teardown and reassembly but lets be honest and just give it a needed overhaul.

Well your better than the other guy on the tube clamped the unit in the vice with no soft jaws 🙄

Panma veo

Great video, I have a 1986 Sears Free Spirit with a Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub that I am refurbishing. I think I've got it shifting pretty well but if I decide to strip the hub down any suggestions on what I should go ahead and replace once I'm in there without getting too expensive. Anything I must/need to replace once I open her up? Working on getting all the chrome looking good right now. I have put alot of wd40 thru her to get it freed up. What oil should I put in her know. It says 86-10 and 3 speed 53c coaster brake on it. Thanks, Mike

That one looks like it sat in some salt water. Nasty. :) One question. I have a 1973 Schwinn Speedster with the SA 3 speed. Would you know if that assembly is the same as you have here. The one I have works, but I'm sure it could use a good cleaning, and new grease. Thank you for your time,

Uno mejores si panma trabajamos cenamos más duro sonido.

o please wd 40 aint no and never will be penetraing oil.