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Musselman hub problems

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Jay81

Riding a '38 Autocycle Deluxe
My Murray Fleetline has a Musselman rear hub. When I got the bike, it rode fine but had some slack in it, whether pedaling or braking.
I only rode it a few times, and now it just spins without engaging at all, in either direction.
I finally got around to taking it apart today. Not real familiar with these, only rebuilt one.
I've done enough New Departure model D hubs I could almost do them blindfolded. Don't know why folks make such a fuss about them, they aren't hard to rebuild at all.

Anyway, I've cleaned all the parts and I'm not seeing anything that looks very worn. There was quite a bit of old hard grease, not sure if that could have been the cause. Considering putting it back together, clean and freshly greased and see if that makes a difference. Or, I have a set of the spare internals, not sure what all the pieces are called, but the clutch and associated parts that I could use.

I took a video today but the file was too big to upload. I had the bike on my repair stand and pedaled it by hand for over a minute and only the cog would turn. Same thing with braking. Basically just freewheeling in both directions. Kinda wish it had a ND, I could just put my blindfold on and get to work lol.
 
Well, I guess I fixed it. I took the hub apart and thoroughly cleaned everything. I scraped off as much of the old hard grease as I could (there was a ton) and put the parts in my ultrasonic cleaner. They came out clean enough to eat off of. Thoroughly cleaned out the inside of the hub shell and regreased everything with Park grease and put it back together.
I had noticed earlier that almost every spoke was a little loose, so I put it on the truing stand and to my surprise it spun super straight. snugged up all the loose spokes and spun it again, still super straight. Tried turning the cog by hand with the wheel in the truing stand, worked fine and braked fine. Went ahead and put it back on the bike and took it for a short ride up and down the street and it works like a charm. Very easy to pedal and very easy to stop. Still don't know exactly what caused the problem, but it's working perfectly now.
 
Well, I guess I fixed it. I took the hub apart and thoroughly cleaned everything. I scraped off as much of the old hard grease as I could (there was a ton) and put the parts in my ultrasonic cleaner. They came out clean enough to eat off of. Thoroughly cleaned out the inside of the hub shell and regreased everything with Park grease and put it back together.
I had noticed earlier that almost every spoke was a little loose, so I put it on the truing stand and to my surprise it spun super straight. snugged up all the loose spokes and spun it again, still super straight. Tried turning the cog by hand with the wheel in the truing stand, worked fine and braked fine. Went ahead and put it back on the bike and took it for a short ride up and down the street and it works like a charm. Very easy to pedal and very easy to stop. Still don't know exactly what caused the problem, but it's working perfectly now.
Jay, I had the same thing happen with a Bendix hub on a Schwinn Middleweight I have. I cleaned all the old hard grease out of it and serviced it and all is well at this time. Hopefully it's as easy as that with yours and it keeps working well...
 
The hardened old grease probably glued the internals together. Cleaning it broke it all free.

Had an NOS Sachs hub that was like that. barely rolled, wouldn't brake, but after cleaning it thoroughly it worked fine.
 
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