Just bought my fifth Sturmey-Archer AM

[rogerzilla]

On indicators: if you want to adjust the cable visually - so the end of the solid rod is flush with the end of the axle in normal gear - you need the right length indicator. The commonest is HSA125, which is correct for 5 3/4" axles. This hub needs HSA126 because it has a 6 1/4" axle. The indicators are also called MkI and MkII because they literally have I or II engraved on them. The more I's, the longer they are. There is a very long one with five I's made now. It is, confusingly, often called MkV.

In a pinch, the HSA125/MkI works on any axle length but you have to adjust the cable by feel for longer axles. Just get the actual 2 --> 3 change halfway between 2 and 3 on the shifter. I had to do this with the 135mm version of the SRC3, as no indicator is actually made for it. IIIII is too long and IIII is too short. Current SA design is very hit or miss.

 

[rogerzilla]

On oil: I use 75W90 GL4 synthetic gear oil, which is about the same viscosity as 10W40 motor oil (the SAE viscosity scales are different for motor and gear oil). Straight SAE30 or SAE20 motor oil is often recommended but is usually non-synthetic and may go gummy eventually, as does 3-in-1. I never want to open one up again after overhaul, so I use something that stays clean and runny.

SA hubs are very well sealed against water getting in but there are no oil seals, so the hub will seep oil from the shell to ball ring joints and, especially, from the large 3/16" ball race. This seepage is minimised if you lean the bike towards its non-drive side when parked. If it's left like that for weeks then some will still usually find its way out. Stick some paper towel in the spokes to catch it. In daily use, a hub will often leak no oil at all.

A good hub can retain about a teaspoon of free oil without serious leaks but it only really needs a good film to coat everything. More oil than this has no advantage. Oil will find its way to every part of the internals when added, including the axle bearings. Add a couple of drops a month through the oil port, more after a long period of no use, to make up for evaporation. When assembling a hub, give everything a good initial coat of oil, especially the three ball bearing races.

In a hub designed for oil lubrication, the only place you should use grease is in the labyrinth seals of the axle bearings. Personally, I don't. Any grease here will usually be washed out by oil anyway, unless it is a particularly oil-resistant type.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

The pawls are very lightly sprung on an SA hub, which is why grease is a bad thing. The special SA grease is more like a very thick brown oil but I prefer to only use oil. It means the hub should never need opening again, whereas grease condemns you to regular overhauls to remove the contaminated grease.

What about using semi-fluid grease, i.e. car CV joint grease for reassembly, then injecting normal oil via a squirty pump oil can for ongoing maintenance lubrication?

 

[rogerzilla]

You could. And it's the only option for Nexus Shimano hubs, which no-one can strip and rebuild, but it doesn't solve the problem of accumulated contamination. Btw, the SA special grease also leaks from the hub in long storage, if used generously.

 

[rogerzilla]

Built it into a 20" wheel and fitted it to the Moulton TSR. Took it straight out this morning for 47 miles. All running silkily. The hills have screwed the mechanism in hard, so the axle bearings have developed miniscule play but that's as they should be on an SA hub (uniquely).

I'm shifting it with a current-model SA 3 speed bar-end shifter, which looks neat. It's not as foolproof as a trigger shifter, though, as it allows intermediate positions.