SA slipping in 2nd gear when pushing.

[jamesofyorkshire]

Hi. I bought a Raleigh 20 with a SA 3-speed a few years ago for a friend of mine in Latvia. The bike has given her pretty much trouble-free service for a loooong time. Until now....

When she peddles hard and the bike is in 2nd gear, she says the pedalling gets easy and the bike doesn't go. If she changes down to first or up to 3rd, the resistence is how it should be depending on hilll/headwind. If in 2nd gear and she has to push because of headwind or hill, it sounds like the gears are slipping.

Any ideas? Any help or advice much appreciated.

[Brucey]

the hub is probably just out of adjustment. There is a neutral (with no drive) between 3rd and 2nd gear; a sliding clutch (which is about 3mm thickness) will tend to pop out of mesh if it isn't fully engaged. It sounds like the barrel adjuster needs a couple of turns on it (to shorten the gear cable).

There are various ways of checking the adjustment/function;

1) that the shoulder on the indicator rod is flush with the axle end in 2nd gear
2) that the cable is slack in top gear
3) that the cable is within 1mm of being tight in first gear
4) that the second gear setting is about 3mm of cable pull away from the neutral position (thus the clutch is fully engaged).

cheers

[pete75]

It may just be the cable needs adjusting. Certainly I'd make sure the cable was correctly adjusted before any further fault finding Instructions are in this document http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com/f ... ew-133.pdf It also contains a fault finding chart.

[jamesofyorkshire]

OK. Thanks to both replies above.

That's what I told her to do first - check the adjustment. She knows how to do this!

If that doesn't do the trick does that mean it's a terminal problem? She certainly won't be able to access the hub and mess about with the innards.

[Brucey]

That's what I told her to do first - check the adjustment. She knows how to do this!

If that doesn't do the trick does that mean it's a terminal problem? She certainly won't be able to access the hub and mess about with the innards.

If the hub is set up perfectly then any one of the four checks I listed would do. However between cable faults and other things (such as slight wear, the hub internal clearance being set wrongly etc) any one check can be 'necessary but not sufficient'. In particular check #4 is quite telling; if the internal clearances are slack (RH cone setting wrong during hub setup) then the clutch may only be engaged in second gear by (say) 1mm. It doesn't take much wear on the parts to allow slippage in second gear if the clutch is only in by 1mm.

If the hub is set wrongly/worn on the clutch then the correct gear setting becomes such that the cable is fully taut in first gear and the shoulder is about 1mm to 1.5mm out of the axle in second gear. If it is bad enough then you won't be able to select both third and second gears with some shifters, because the cable won't be fully slack in top gear. Similarly if the internal setup is bad enough it may not be possible to select first gear.

So I repeat; have her do check #4 and alter the usual gear setting accordingly. When in second gear, if the gear goes to neutral within 2mm of that setting, then the 2nd gear setting is wrong for that hub.

cheers