rollfaster
Riding a '38 Autocycle Deluxe
Very nice example! Here is a 57 i cleaned up/rebuilt for a good friend a few years ago.
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1955 Rudge
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slowride
Finally riding a big boys bike
Additional info. Do you know if bearings have been serviced? If not it’s best to remove , clean , and repack all bearings. Info on TCW adjustment.
very important- the front wheel only goes in one way- with the adjustable cup end of hub on non-drive side. See diagram. If you reverse installation you will ruin the hub.
very important- the front wheel only goes in one way- with the adjustable cup end of hub on non-drive side. See diagram. If you reverse installation you will ruin the hub.
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jimbo53
I live for the CABE
Thanks for the servicing info on the TCW hub. I have an early 60’s Phillips DL-1 with 28” wheels and front rod brake but a TCW coaster 3 speed hub. Appears to be all original but TCW hub and rod brakes are a new one for me!
SirMike1983
Riding a '38 Autocycle Deluxe
The TCW hub is a series of compromises. It is basically a coaster brake grafted onto a modified AW drive. Some parts interchange with the AW, but many do not. It's not exactly an AW, and it's not exactly just a plain coaster brake, but a combination of the two. A bicycle with a TCW hub should always have some other form of brake, preferably a good, front wheel handbrake.
If you have an unserviced TCW hub, you'll want to open up the coaster brake and clean and re-grease with a quality grease. It need not be expensive bicycle shop grease, but it should be something better than the old, thick axle grease that drags. For light duty use, I'd use something like Lucas green grease (hardware stores have it), or Lucas red high temp grease if you're really going to be heating up the brake. I don't see just oiling the hub as an option here because the coaster brake side of the house really needs a decent quality grease. The brake side bearings should get a good coat of something like the Lucas green grease as well. Marine grease is also an option if you are going to be riding through standing water, but that's generally not a great idea.
The transmission side of things is a little bit like an AW hub - grease the outer bearings with something like Lucas green or another quality grease (again, not the old, gooey axle grease that drags). The innards get a coat of light or medium oil - 20 or 30 weight is fine. Adjust the drive-side cone to correct tension, then set up the coaster brake side cone for play.
When using, be careful not to slam the shifter down into high gear while also braking or transitioning to braking at the pedals. The reason for this is that the two halves of the hub are held in place by a single, fragile E-shaped clip that sits in a groove in the axle. If that E-clip is forced out of the groove, the hub will cease functioning correctly and you may fall into neutral, preventing the hub from driving and preventing it from braking.
One other thing to remember is that by modern standards, the TCW's brake ring/shoe is undersized, so braking power is somewhat reduced. The braking mechanism is also applied AFTER gear reduction/increase through the transmission, so you will have somewhat reduced braking power in high gear. You will have NO braking power in neutral between normal and high.
The TCW version with small, curved arm and the traditional writing on the arm is the older version of the hub.
If you have an unserviced TCW hub, you'll want to open up the coaster brake and clean and re-grease with a quality grease. It need not be expensive bicycle shop grease, but it should be something better than the old, thick axle grease that drags. For light duty use, I'd use something like Lucas green grease (hardware stores have it), or Lucas red high temp grease if you're really going to be heating up the brake. I don't see just oiling the hub as an option here because the coaster brake side of the house really needs a decent quality grease. The brake side bearings should get a good coat of something like the Lucas green grease as well. Marine grease is also an option if you are going to be riding through standing water, but that's generally not a great idea.
The transmission side of things is a little bit like an AW hub - grease the outer bearings with something like Lucas green or another quality grease (again, not the old, gooey axle grease that drags). The innards get a coat of light or medium oil - 20 or 30 weight is fine. Adjust the drive-side cone to correct tension, then set up the coaster brake side cone for play.
When using, be careful not to slam the shifter down into high gear while also braking or transitioning to braking at the pedals. The reason for this is that the two halves of the hub are held in place by a single, fragile E-shaped clip that sits in a groove in the axle. If that E-clip is forced out of the groove, the hub will cease functioning correctly and you may fall into neutral, preventing the hub from driving and preventing it from braking.
One other thing to remember is that by modern standards, the TCW's brake ring/shoe is undersized, so braking power is somewhat reduced. The braking mechanism is also applied AFTER gear reduction/increase through the transmission, so you will have somewhat reduced braking power in high gear. You will have NO braking power in neutral between normal and high.
The TCW version with small, curved arm and the traditional writing on the arm is the older version of the hub.
Schwinny
I live for the CABE
Is this one of the early TCW arms you mentioned? It was loose in a box of parts I bought many years ago.
The 67' TCWIII I have on my custom racer hasn't missed a beat but I have bought a couple bikes with TCW 3spd coasters that freewheeled. I just replaced them. I've taken a lot of these 3spd hubs apart to grease and clean but never had to fix one. They are so plentiful that I just go down to the salvage yard and get another for $10
I also found by trial and error that hi-temp grease on the outboard bearings keeps more oil in the hub (stickier with less flow as it heats). Since there are no seals there, its the grease that keeps the small amount of oil in the hub. It only needs an ounce or two. Too much oil and it washes the grease away, moves past the outboard bearings and drips on the floor and on the rim.
49autocycledeluxe
Riding a '38 Autocycle Deluxe
that's got to be the same company that made the Sears "JC Higgin's" I keep seeing on local craigslist. there are actually two of them.
SirMike1983
Riding a '38 Autocycle Deluxe
My guess would be a previous owner dumped the rear rod set up, at least part of it, and went with a rear coaster brake. That's a pre-1960 Phillips, from the look of it. The previous owner may have swapped in a coaster because it was more familiar. At one point, Hercules actually exported coaster-and-rod roadsters to the US, but the one I had did not have the holes for the bell crank. I'd be inclined to swap back to an AW and get the rod brake parts back on there.
That looks like one of the earlier arms. There's a later arm that is squarer and has a banner type Sturmey logo. I agree that the best bet is to get a good, low mileage TCWIII type hub as a starting point. The junked ones can be very hard to get "right", and you end up having to keep substituting in parts until it will function. It's a pain when you get to that point of swapping all kinds of parts in and out to get the right "mixture" to get the hub working again. The one put on my 1946 Hercules rod-coaster type worked well, but took quite a bit of doing to get there.
