# Bendix two speed problems- please help.



## balloontirecruiser (Jan 28, 2009)

My Hawthorne has a Bendix two speed manually shifted hub which previously worked fine. I decided it could probably use a cleaning and re-lubrication, and so began the process today. Now I have a serious problem with my hub which I need to fix, but am at a loss on where to begin. I'll start from the beginning. I took the hub apart, no problems here. Inside, there was an abundance of dark, somewhat metallic grease (I'm not sure if this is normal- I figured the metallic luster was caused by minuscule metal shavings) and decided a cleaning and re-lube was definitely needed. Ok, so still no issues. I took all the internals out of the hub shell, and thoroughly cleaned the internals and hub shell interior with clean gasoline. This went well. Using a hub reference book, I greased and oiled the different internal components appropriately. I went to put the back together, and found that the thinner, wider bearing near the planet gears was in backwards. No big deal, everything came out and I flipped the bearing. Well, I can be forgetful, and it turns out that I forgot to put one of the smaller bearings back inside the hub- the one in the middle of the hub (on the driver side- not the brake side). I figured this would be no problem- all I have to do is take the internals out again and put the bearing back in place, right? Not exactly. I clamped the driver side of the hub (the nut with no straight edges to grab) carefully in the vice, and tried to loosen the brake side cone.  For some reason, I can turn the brake side cone like four times, then it's AS STUCK AS COULD BE.  I just can't get it loose with any amount of effort. However, I can get it to turn 4 times back to the right. What happened here? Can anyone figure this out? I really am getting worried that my wheel is junk now. Why would forgetting one bearing cause such a problem? The parts are not cross threaded, and I don't think the internals were incorrectly assembled- I followed a Bendix reference catalog. What's extra wierd is that the axle is now so bent it's not funny, and it was fine before, and I did nothing to bend the axle. Both times I reassembled the hub it went together very smoothly. I didn't throw the wheel or do anything that could directly bend the axle... Please do offer any help you can. I really would like to fix this hub... Last resort is to cut the driver and axle off and start over.


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## balloontirecruiser (Jan 28, 2009)

I also forgot to mention that some of my bearings need to be replaced, and so i'm looking to buy several types... The medium sized, driver bearing, mine said "MORROW" (oddly enough) with a part number? 3291. I also need one of the largest, thinnest bearings- I forgot to look for a number on that one. If I can ever get my hub apart again I'll look for the number, and I think one or two more parts need to be replaced.


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## balloontirecruiser (Jan 29, 2009)

The hub finally came apart with a lot of gasoline and an hour or two of slow back-and-forth working, I can hardly believe it.


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## unit5alive (Mar 8, 2009)

I rebuilt my red band 2 speed kick back in the late 1980's so I don't remember a lot about it,it was in a Schwinn Jaguar ,1959?, anyway it was replaced with a Nexus 7 speed , I bought a lot of my parts from a very nice man in the midwest, at the time he had almost every part to rebuild it, I still have the wheel in hope's of putting it to good use someday!,is your hub working good now?, Craig.


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## willy wonka (Mar 14, 2009)

*sounds like*

sounds like you may of bent the hub when you hadit in the vice peroblem number two you cant use just any bearings in those hubs  the grease you saw in the hube was a grease i belive that had a graphite compound in it to help reduce ware on the componits you really need to find someone one the cabe thats worked on them goodluck william


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## tankclassic (Apr 6, 2009)

*Have a second hub to compare when doing a job like this*

Have a second hub to refrence what part goes where. On the subject of 2 speed bendix hubs. Schwinn had a two day training session for the maintanance of that hub. Bendix was good to advance from this kind of trouble shooting.An axle can cause alot of problems when they are worn out., bent.


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## balloontirecruiser (Apr 6, 2009)

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the replies, I did finally get this straightened out. It turns out, the slot in my hub axle in which the main gear is driven to slide back and forth by the toggle arm push rod was severely worn- to the point that releasing the old grease and tightening the hub bent it out of shape. Eventually, after running gas over and through the overly tight hub over and over again, things just released and it came right apart. With the help of a fellow forum member it was built back up with NOS parts and is running super smooth. No issues whatsoever now! If anyone ever has a problem with these manually shifted Bendix two speeds, pm me, I might be able to help now.


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