Model SRF3. On my town bike, trouble engaging 3rd(hardest/fastest) gear. Shifter and cable are fine, and you can move the indicator chain by hand. In 3rd the wheel jams occasionally and there are lots of clanking noises, and the indicator chain bucks and twangs the cable. Given that a new one will be 2/3 of what I paid for the whole bike, anything useful to be done with it? Cheers.

You can get service parts for the internals, but I don’t know what’s wrong with yours and how much the parts will be of course.

Is the cable correctly adjusted?

You can wreck a hubgear if it isn’t.

Most S-A hubs are repairable, unlike Shimano which are chuck out jobs.

I had precisely the same problem with one of mine. With zero cable tension and the cable-chain completely lose, it still wouldn’t engage hardest gear. I tried lubing everything, taking any slight kinks out of the cable-chain, all to no avail. Something internally had probably gone bang and I couldn’t be bothered to find out what.

Got a S/H one off eBay in the end and it’s been fine ever since.

Cheers all. Yes, in top gear the cable and chain were slack, and it was previously getting all three gears. I’ve had a look on ebay and I’ve found a new full wheel and cabling for £65, so I’ll keep an eye out for a used donor wheel for a week or two, then buy one. I’ll then delve in to the broken one, more to be nosey than in any real hope of fixing it, it’s sure to be full of pingfukkits and wheresthatfroms.

Strip it and fix it, sounds scary but there’s loads ont web to help. I’ve just don’t an old 3 speed and it was easy enough.

t’s sure to be full of pingfukkits and wheresthatfroms.

YOINK!

midlifecrashes – Member
Cheers all. Yes, in top gear the cable and chain were slack…

That’s not how you adjust them.

There is a gear indicator on the little chain. It’s simply the flat of the rod attached to the chain. It should be flush with the the edge of the axle( seen through the hole in the wheel nut) in N gear (ie direct drive)

Unless there is a problem with the cable (rust, kinks etc) or the hub has been damaged by being run out of adjustment, setting the hub to the mark cures all ills.

There is one other possibility. Has there been any adjustment of the hub bearings? There is a precise amount of axle length on the rhs which should be observed.

Full details here.

Hope this helps and sorry if I’m teaching you to suck eggs. 🙂

midlifecrashes – Member
…I’ll then delve in to the broken one, more to be nosey than in any real hope of fixing it, it’s sure to be full of pingfukkits and wheresthatfroms.

Never a truer word… 🙂

Follow the advice above , they are simple things and work well if you follow the instructions , don’t just guess.
Oh and spares are easy to get. Much like hope stuff every little bit is mostly avavilbe at least for post 1950s stuff and even then there is nos stuff on eBay

My guess is the little shifter bar doo da that the indicator chain threads into inside the hub is bent.

Does no one call it a monkey chain anymore?
😐

Get that thing apart and have a look if it’s not adjusting correctly.

Really easy to do and no fly away parts inside! Just take your time and lay everything out in order.

You’ll feel like a genius when it’s back together and working again.