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Serviceability of Spaceliner 2 speed kickback?
- Thread starter skamatt23
- Start date
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skamatt23
Look Ma, No Hands!
Well I feel like I've failed here. I can't explain how since I purchased this 95% restored Spaceliner that I would have so many headaches.
I took my time, figured out all the disassembly, cleaned well, lubed up, left the brake discs but did a good job freeing them up.
Then came the reassembly...
It took me a dozen tries to get the brake side on to the right assembly with the low speed clutch spiral thing etc. Clutch plates and the clip lines up. After 2 hours of struggling I have it back to together but it still isn't working properly.
Nothing is broken as far as I can see and after spending so much time doing this, looking at it put together but outside of the housing, I am confident I put it together correct in the end.
I cant seem to get the engagement correct assuming the inside is as it should be. The cone adjustment and the Bendix tool inner piece seem to be hit or miss with tension and kicking back makes the assembly want to sort of disassemble.
I am at the point where I need to walk away for a second and calm down. Never struggled with a hub before like this. I have read and reread the Schwinn/Brown pictures a dozen times.
What is especially frustrating is I am literally a minute of assembly away from this being a success but it is still not working. After buying this, paying for the wheel to be built with new sized spokes, the money i spent on getting my front fork straight I am just ready to throw this restored Spaceliner in the nearest dumpster. I'm a competent mechanic and this bike is kicking my ass around every turn it seems.
I really don't want to ship this but is there anyone even a few hours away that can help me out? I'm at the end of my patience at this point with this thing. I just don't have the experience fixing this further. I can drive as well to meet up.
I took my time, figured out all the disassembly, cleaned well, lubed up, left the brake discs but did a good job freeing them up.
Then came the reassembly...
It took me a dozen tries to get the brake side on to the right assembly with the low speed clutch spiral thing etc. Clutch plates and the clip lines up. After 2 hours of struggling I have it back to together but it still isn't working properly.
Nothing is broken as far as I can see and after spending so much time doing this, looking at it put together but outside of the housing, I am confident I put it together correct in the end.
I cant seem to get the engagement correct assuming the inside is as it should be. The cone adjustment and the Bendix tool inner piece seem to be hit or miss with tension and kicking back makes the assembly want to sort of disassemble.
I am at the point where I need to walk away for a second and calm down. Never struggled with a hub before like this. I have read and reread the Schwinn/Brown pictures a dozen times.
What is especially frustrating is I am literally a minute of assembly away from this being a success but it is still not working. After buying this, paying for the wheel to be built with new sized spokes, the money i spent on getting my front fork straight I am just ready to throw this restored Spaceliner in the nearest dumpster. I'm a competent mechanic and this bike is kicking my ass around every turn it seems.
I really don't want to ship this but is there anyone even a few hours away that can help me out? I'm at the end of my patience at this point with this thing. I just don't have the experience fixing this further. I can drive as well to meet up.
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skamatt23
Look Ma, No Hands!
OK I think I know what happened. I bought a bad hub with unfortunately a bad indexing spring.
In this super helpful series of 4 videos I found on YT my indexing spring is missing the inner small indexing spring tabs. The more vertical pieces closer to the edge are intact. Around the 2:25 mark you see good detail on the spring and after looking at mine...all three are worn down or missing. Sucks because I had a wheel built around a bad hub and now I have to start from scratch or find someone who has an indexing spring WHAT A DAMN HEADACHE. It explains why even though it was super gummed up all i had was low gear.
Now what should I do? Hassle with finding a spring and then tossing it on assuming i can even find one or find a hub that work all over again?
Part of me is upset at myself I bought a hub here that didn't work but was too gummed up to even test regardless and part of me feels like another working spring is a needle in a hay stack and when all is said and done I'm not confident in my ability to put it together properly.
In this super helpful series of 4 videos I found on YT my indexing spring is missing the inner small indexing spring tabs. The more vertical pieces closer to the edge are intact. Around the 2:25 mark you see good detail on the spring and after looking at mine...all three are worn down or missing. Sucks because I had a wheel built around a bad hub and now I have to start from scratch or find someone who has an indexing spring WHAT A DAMN HEADACHE. It explains why even though it was super gummed up all i had was low gear.
Now what should I do? Hassle with finding a spring and then tossing it on assuming i can even find one or find a hub that work all over again?
Part of me is upset at myself I bought a hub here that didn't work but was too gummed up to even test regardless and part of me feels like another working spring is a needle in a hay stack and when all is said and done I'm not confident in my ability to put it together properly.
Sorry it turned out that way, but I don't know what you could have done differently. You are gambling a bit buying one of these hubs. All of them are gummed up. If your indexing tabs are gone, that is indeed the problem. The indexing springs do fail, and to be fair were probably the most common part failure in the hub way back when.
However, back in the day, like now, it was much more common to just be a problem with old crappy grease than a failed spring. As you can see the spring is delicate and the spring pressures at play are quite small. Any gummy old crud in there will cause it to malfunction.
I mean I guess you probably could have bought one that was advertised to be "working", but I imagine that costs more and then you still would have had to tear it down anyway to clean it out before you could have any expectation it might be reliable.
As you saw in that video, you can test indexing in your hand to verify it works before you put it together. It's not a "bad hub" because the spring is bad. Yes you should chase down a spring. I know it is Inconvenient and expensive.
As for the other low speed spring you mentioned, or the high speed spring for that matter, those just work like the retarder spring on any other coaster brake. They are tabbed into something solid and drag on something that turns. Only a small drag is needed. You should be able to figure out how to look for broken tabs and and test those out of the hub too if you are worried about it.
Best of luck going forward.
However, back in the day, like now, it was much more common to just be a problem with old crappy grease than a failed spring. As you can see the spring is delicate and the spring pressures at play are quite small. Any gummy old crud in there will cause it to malfunction.
I mean I guess you probably could have bought one that was advertised to be "working", but I imagine that costs more and then you still would have had to tear it down anyway to clean it out before you could have any expectation it might be reliable.
As you saw in that video, you can test indexing in your hand to verify it works before you put it together. It's not a "bad hub" because the spring is bad. Yes you should chase down a spring. I know it is Inconvenient and expensive.
As for the other low speed spring you mentioned, or the high speed spring for that matter, those just work like the retarder spring on any other coaster brake. They are tabbed into something solid and drag on something that turns. Only a small drag is needed. You should be able to figure out how to look for broken tabs and and test those out of the hub too if you are worried about it.
Best of luck going forward.
skamatt23
Look Ma, No Hands!
No I know. I'm learning and cleaning up a hub was an experience but I should have expected this to happen.
Sorry I vented a bit.
I took the bad spring and put it back together/installed to just grab one gear which is fine for the moment. I was able to bend two of the three worn prongs to get minimal indexing but still no consistent changes. It worked for a moment on my stand but the hub tension seemed to change or lock up and I lost it. I'm not getting it to return after a kickback so I hope the new spring will somehow fix that.
With the new spring installed I'll try to duplicate the video and see if it works.
Sorry I vented a bit.
I took the bad spring and put it back together/installed to just grab one gear which is fine for the moment. I was able to bend two of the three worn prongs to get minimal indexing but still no consistent changes. It worked for a moment on my stand but the hub tension seemed to change or lock up and I lost it. I'm not getting it to return after a kickback so I hope the new spring will somehow fix that.
With the new spring installed I'll try to duplicate the video and see if it works.
Rusty Klunker
Wore out three sets of tires already!
Sounds like you have it back together but I was going to say post a picture of the spring. If I'm reading it right you're saying the fingers that are bent inward are missing tabs. There are no tabs on the inner bent fingers, they're just arced in and fall into the pockets of the tin piece on the sprocket.
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