Putting it Back Together Again

I thought I had some extra tubes so I could get the tires mounted on the new wheels , but either I've used them or misplaced them.  So while I'm waiting on tubes I decided to start some of the reassembly.  I started with the bottom bracket.  When test fitting the gear case, I temporarily installed the original bottom bracket, chain, and cranks.  I cleaned and buffed the chainwheel and cranks, greased everything and installed them permanently.  I used new cotter pins, and replaced the bottom bracket fixed cup which was pitted and rust corroded.  I threaded the new chain through the gear case but did not cut it to length yet.  First I wanted to replace the standard 18T rear sprocket with a larger one to provide a more comfortable overall gear range.  I like the range a 22T sprocket provides with the AW gearing and 48T front chainwheel.  I wasn't sure how large a sprocket I would be able fit within the enclosed gear case.  Have both a 20T and a 22T.  I tried the 22T first and it seemed to have enough clearance, so I measured the chain and removed the excess links.

On the left is the original 18T sprocket, on the right is the 22T replacement



Bottom bracket, cranks, and chain installed, with 22T rear sprocket

Installing the headset was next, I cleaned and buffed the top and bottom cups and fixing nuts.  Re-greased the cups and installed the 50, 5/32" loose ball bearings, 25 in each cup.

Pressing in the top and bottom cups with homemade press

Cups in place

Bottom cup with 25 loose balls

Top cup

The front fork is now installed, just realized I also need to install the lamp bracket.

I wanted to start working on replacing for the original fenders (mudguards).  Half of the original rear fender had been sawed off, and both were in poor general condition.  I have a couple possible options, I can use the fenders from the 1970 Sports that I will be using for the path racer project; however, these are green.  I also have some NOS black Raleigh fenders  but the do not have the fender stays attached.  I could clean up the original front fender,  and just use the rear NOS fender.

  I'm interested in trying to use the NOS fenders because I have several sets of these in various original Raleigh colors, but none have the stays attached.  I have some new Wald fender stays that may work with some modifications, and paint.  So, I'm going with this option first.  Here's a picture of trial fitting of  NOS fenders with out the tires.  Before I make final modifications and drilling of  the stays I want to an get the tires mounted to help establish a proper fender line with the tires.

Rear NOS fender with Wald stays attached

Front NOS fender with stay located under axle nut, need to shorten to attach to the fork eyelet instead.



It's starting to like a bike again, I have not decided about refinishing and painting.  I generally like keeping the original finish on classic bikes, but with a mix of NOS shinny fenders, wire brushed frame, and repo chaincase this one may need some attention.  I'm not going to worry about it right now, I just want to get everything back together and put some miles on it before deciding anything.

Please comment and share your experiences.

We Have Wheels

The spokes ordered in the last post arrived.  I finished lacing and initial tensioning.  The spoke lengths I ordered seem to be spot-on.  They have good thread engagement and there is no protrusion of the spoke through the bottom of the nipple.

  I used Sapim Leader straight gage (2mm/14ga) stainless steel spokes and 12mm nipples.  The rear wheel is laced 3X, and the Dynohub wheel is laced 2X on Dyno side flange and 3X on the smaller flange.  Because these are modern spokes I had to used spoke washers with the thinner Sturmey Archer flanges.

Using spoke washes is a nuisance, especially on the special key-hole spoke holes on the small flange of the Dynohub.  Next time I'm going to put more effort into saving the old spokes.  Raleigh started using stainless steel spokes as far back as 1939, they were advertised as "Staybrite" spokes.  Even though the old spokes looked dull and corroded, they would probably clean-up real nice with a little effort.

I used 10mm rim tape with the CR-18 rims, the rim holes are located in a very narrow channel in the bottom of the rim.

Just need to finish the final tensioning, truing, and dishing of the wheels, then mount the tubes and tires.

Please share your comments and experiences.

Rims and Spokes

Now that the hubs are rebuilt I'm ready to starting lacing up some new wheels for the 1953 Sports.  The original 26 x 1-3/8" Raleigh Patent Rims which are commonly referred to as Westrick rims were rusted beyond use.  Most classic three speeds use a Westwood; Endrick; or Westrick type rim.

Westwood rim, these are intended to be used with rod-brakes, the brake pads bear against the raised center section.  They do not have side faces for caliper type brakes.

Endrick rim, these can only be used with caliper type brakes, there is no raised center section they can not be used with rod-brakes



Raleigh Patent rims, A.K.A. Westrick, these are a cross between Westwood and Endrick rims.  They have a raised center section so rod-brakes can be used as in this picture.  You can also see they have a side face for caliper type brakes.

That ugly sticker just peels off

I will be replacing the rusted steel "Westrick" rims with Sun CR-18 alloy rims.  If you want to maintain complete originality replacement Westrick rims are usually easy to find.  I wanted to try these rims for their lightness and better braking, especially when wet.  When ordering new rims you must know the Bead Seat Diameter (BSD) of the rim.  For many classic three speeds using 26 x 1-3/8" tires this is 590mm (sometimes is referred to as 650A), but be careful there are some that have a BSD of 597mm.  The 1953 Raleigh Sport rim is 590mm.

I've also decided to use new spokes with the CR-18 rims.  When building wheels with new rims and spokes you also need to know the Effective Rim Diameter (ERD) of the new rim in order to calculate the proper spoke length for the wheel.  There are several ways to measure ERD, search on-line and find one you are comfortable with, most rim manufactures also publish this dimension, I prefer to measure it using the actual rim I'm building with.  I measured the original Westrick rims to have a ERD of 576mm, and the new CR-18 rims measured 578mm.  In this case there is very little difference between the two so the original spokes would  have been useable assuming I used the same number of spoke crossings.  There is an advantage to using the old spokes if you can because they are a better fit with the thin flanges used on the Sturmey-Archer (SA) hubs.  Modern spokes are designed for thicker hub flanges.  If you use modern spokes in the thin flanges of  a SA hub, you will need to use spoke washers to take up the extra space under the spoke head.

In addition to the ERD, most on-line spoke length calculators require measuring the diameter of the spoke hole circle on each flange, flange spacing center to center, number of spokes, and the number of spoke crossing you will be using, (2X, 3X, 4X, etc.).  I made a simple stand from a scrape piece of 2 x 4 and metal plate, with a 13/32" hole drilled, so the hub can stand upright on its locknut to facilitate obtaining hub measurements.

After you obtain your rim and hub measurements find a on-line spoke calculator you like and enter the input values, I usually use this one www.wheelpro.co.uk/spokecalc .  In my case using a CR-18 rim, 3X crossing, and a 40 hole AW hub, with 12mm spoke nipples, the spoke length calculated was 272.2 mm for the left flange, and 271.7 for the right.  I rounded these to 272mm and ordered 40 272mm spokes.  The spoke length for the front Dynohub using 3x crossing on left flange (small), and 2x crossing on the Dyno side (large flange) and a 32 hole hub, the length calculated was 282.8mm for the left, and 256.3mm for the right.  I rounded the left to 282mm (only even size lengths available), and the right side to 256mm.  I ordered 18, 282mm, and 18, 256mm spokes for the Dynohub.

Once the spokes and nipples are received I can start building the new wheels for the 1953 Sports.  There are many on-line sources for information on wheel building, find one your comfortable with and start lacing.

Please share your thoughts and experiences.

1953 GH6 Dynohub Rebuild

The last post covered rebuilding the rear hub from the 1953 Raleigh Sports.  This post will look at the front hub for this bike a Sturmey Archer Dynohub model GH6 (Generator  Hub 6 volts).  It has a date stamp of 9 53 (Sep. 1953).

This bike originally had two lights mounted, one for the Dynohub, the other was connected to a tire driven bottle generator.  The wires to the Dynohub were not connected  so I assumed the Dynohub may not be working.

I mounted the rim in the truing stand, connected a multimeter to the Dynohub terminals and gave the rim a spin.  Amazingly; after 60 years, and sitting unprotected in the weather the Dyno still produced a current.

Knowing the  hub still has some life, I was ready to start disassembly.  I removed the hub from the rim and gave it an initial cleaning and degreasing.



Note the lack of a Spacing Cup (HSD 301) on the left side against the Dyno.  Instead, two thick washers were being used.  I'm assuming it did not come from the factory this way?

The internals of the Dynohub are not that different than a normal front hub with the exception of the Armature and Magnet, basically just cones, races, and bearings.

The Dyno is on the right.  The black center portion is the Armature which is stationary, the outer ring is the Magnet which revolves around the Armature producing current.  

An important word of caution, never separate the Armature and Magnet.  Separation even for a fraction of a second will cause loss of magnetism.

This bike appears to have seen many miles, the rear AW hub cones/races were very worn, these are equally bad.  The bike did have an old District of Columbia bike registration sticker, that plus the additional lights, and all of the reflective tape suggests a well used DC commuter bike.

Finding replacement parts in the USA for a Dynohub is much more difficult then obtaining parts for a AW rear hub.  The bearing races are part of the hub shell and cannot be replaced without replacing the entire shell.  The cones are also hard to find, unless you can cannibalized another Dynohub.  The caged ball bearings and dust caps are interchangeable with those of the AW rear hub.

The cones on the left are from the 1953 hub, the cones on the right are from a 1947 hub and will be used as replacements.



As noted before, this hub appears to be missing the Spacing Cup (HSD 301), these are also difficult to find.  I was able to make an replacement on the lathe from aluminum, hopefully it will work OK.  I think the only purpose of the Spacing Cup is to fix the terminal plate in place, preventing it from rotating with the wheel, and set the "over-the-locknut-distance (O.L.D.) to fit within the front dropouts.

This picture show the original two spacers used in lieu of a Spacing Cup on this hub in the background. The Spacing Cup on the left is from the Dynohub used on the 1949 Comrade, the one on the right is what I made on the lathe to replace the two washers in the background.
 

Original configuration with two washers

This is with homemade Spacing Cup

This is the hub rebuilt with replacement parts, new grease, and shell buffed.  I'm measuring the "over-the-locknut-distance" (O.L.D.) to make any final adjustments with spacers, washers, etc.  The front fork dropout spacing on Raleigh Sports is approximately 90 mm, so the O.L.D. should be equivalent.

 Please share your thoughts and experiences.

Disassembly and Inspection of the 1953 Sturmey-Archer AW Hub

The next step in refurbishing the 1953 Raleigh Sports is cleaning and inspecting the front and rear hubs. The rear hub is a Sturmey-Archer three-speed AW hub with a date stamp of 53-10 (Oct. 1953), the front is a Sturmey-Archer GH6 Dynohub date stamped 9-53 (Sep. 1953).  This post will focus on the AW hub, a future post will cover the Dynohub.  The "A" series of hubs were introduced by Sturmey-Archer in 1936.  Initially there were three hubs in the series; "AR" close-ratio; "AM" medium-ratio; and "AW" wide-ratio.  By far the "AW" is the most common hub found on classic three speeds.  It has a "low" gear which was a 25% reduction from the middle or "normal' gear, and a "high" gear which is a 33 1/3% increase above "normal".

There are several online sources that provide diagrams of Sturmey-Archer (SA) internals and service instructions, I would recommend obtaining a copy for anyone attempting disassembly.  Tony Hadland the author of "The Sturmey-Archer Story" has a lot of good on-line hub information, Sheldon Brown's sites also contain plenty of information on SA hubs.

Before starting disassembly the exterior of the hub usually requires a good cleaning and degreasing.  Next record how the hub has been assembled on the axle, note the number and location of the cone locknuts, lock washers and spacers on both sides of the axle, a digital camera works great for this.  If the hub has a dished sprocket (reversible) note the orientation of the dish inward or outward.  This initial assemble is not necessarily correct or desirable.  Most of these hubs have had different sized spacers, nuts, washers etc. added or removed during its history and could be adversely affecting the chain line, dropout spacing, and wheel dishing.  (See previous post "Adjusting Chain Line on the Sturmey Archer AW Hub").

I'm not going to cover each disassembly step but will mention that one of the first steps, removal of the right hand Ball Ring can be one of the most difficult.  Some hubs come apart without much effort but there are others were this step can be frustrating depending on the amount of corrosion; a history of being used to stomp up hills; mounted in a wheel or not; an early model hub with square notches and wrench flats on the left hand Ball Cup; or later model with half-moon notches, and a pressed-in left hand Ball Cup without wrench flats.  Sometimes you get lucky, some not so much.

These are the AW internals after being removed from the hub shell.  The right hand Ball Ring can be seen with its square notches

A blurry picture of the Gear Ring and Planet Cage 

Another blurry picture of the right hand cone, bearings and driver

The Driver

Right hand Ball Ring, dust cover, and 24 loose 3/16" ball bearings

The Clutch in the bottom of Gear Ring and Gear Ring Pawls

An inspection of the 1953 hub showed rust corrosion and chips on some of the Pinion and Sun Pinion teeth.  Chipped faces on some of the pawls.  All cones and bearing races were deeply pitted.  The Ring Gear had severe rust corrosion on the faces of the inner teeth.  One nice thing about the AW hub is its interchangeability with other SA hubs and years.  In addition, most AW hub parts are still available on-line.  I was able to use some parts from a 1961 AW to replace the questionable 1953 hub parts.  Normally; I always replace the Clutch and Pawl springs.

This is the hub after rebuilding with new and replacement parts; re-lubrication; I use a special type grease instead of oil; buffing the hub shell and setting the proper chain line.  It is now ready for lacing into a new rim.  

Please share your thoughts and experiences.

Replacing the 1953 Raleigh Sports Chaincase

I've never had a bike with an enclosed chaincase.  I've heard many complaints from those who have concerning fixing flats, removing the rear wheel, perform chain maintenance, being noisy, etc..  I suspect I will experience these problems over time, but for me the enclosed chaincase adds so much appeal to the classic three-speed it will be worth it.  Sometime in the history of this bike the lower portion of the chaincase was sawed off; in addition, the "pie plate" and rear cover were missing.

Locating an original Raleigh Sports chaincase proved to be difficult and costly.  I was able to find a repo version online at the Yellow Jersey.



 I was skeptical about using a repo because of potential fitment problems.  I will continue my quest of finding an original but for now I need to make this repo work.  The original case still had the rear bracket and riveted on front bracket support behind the chainwheel.  I removed the rivets from the front bracket.

I then tried both brackets on the repo.  The back bracket aligned perfectly with the drillings in the repo.  The front bracket was close but I had to enlarged the center hole, which is the hole the small bolt passes through into the chainstay braze-on for the chaincase.
  

Rear Bracket

I then mounted the front bolt behind the chainwheel, chainwheel, and chain to check for initial fit.  Threading the chain through the chaincase is difficult.

I slowly turned the chainwheel checking for rubbing and interference with the case.  The chainwheel was rubbing on the front bracket, the chain was also rubbing the front portion of the case.  The rear of the case was interfering with the rear sprocket.  I marked on the chaincase were I thought additional bending would be need to add clearance.  I made some adjustments to the case.

Extra filing need on the radius

I had to deepen and extend the relief for the seat stay

This is the back of the case, I removed the inside front bracket and deepen the relief from the inside to make more clearance for the bolt.

I remounted the case and tried again, this time much of the initial rubbing had been eliminated, but there was still some chain rubbing. See separate Post on adjusting the chain line.  I then installed the rear cover and "pie plate".

This is the finished product.  I think the repo might work, but I have concerns that the "pie plate" might become a problem because its just a press fit into the chaincase and does not seem very secure.  Only actual riding will determine this.  I do think that once the bike is farther along and ready for its first ride I will fill the rear tube with "Slime" to discourage any flats.  I do not want to experience removing the rear wheel and fixing a flat in the field with the enclosed chaincase.

Please share your thoughts and experiences.