Sturmey Archer gearbox comments
Following on from your features covering gear pinions and pinion dogs, could I make an addition?
The recommended lubricant for Sturmey Archer gearboxes is thin grease. This is no good in cold weather, as it does not fling up to the top of the gearbox to lubricate between the mainshaft and driving gear. Salt water can easily enter between these two and rust appears very quickly, as the shafts are hardened steel. The spreading rust blocks any lubricant, so rapid wear takes place.
In the gear change shaft, plain bearing at the bottom is a small circular recess into which a narrow O-ring can be inserted, enabling thick oil (140 grade) to be used which will run along the mainshaft a lot easier. A slight seepage tends to trickle down the outside from between the ring gear and mainshaft, which is a good thing, as it shows all the parts are oily.
The gear change shaft (see photograph) needs all the sharp edges smoothing off so as not to chew the O-ring on assembly.
Martin Taylor, email.
Thank you, Martin, for your advice. Such gained from experience is valuable to all of us who run older motorcycles.
Martin finished his email: ‘I’d just like to add I’m not the Martin Taylor who takes part in the Banbury Run on a Kenilworth scooter. What a brave chap.’
Three or four years ago, while riding my 1911 499cc Premier for the VMCC Banbury Run, I followed ‘the other’ Martin Taylor, standing on his scooter’s platform (it has no seat) sweeping through a series of country lane bends. A very accomplished rider of what must be a difficult machine to control. Programme notes record he’s riding his late grandma’s scooter powered by a 142cc ohv Norman engine, and a family friend, Jane Jarvis (secretary and treasurer of the New Imperial Owners’ Association info@new-imperial. co.uk) often enters the Banbury Run on her Kenilworth, with seat, dressed as Nurse Gladys.
Kenilworth Scooters were manufactured by Kenilworth Utility Motors Ltd, of Much Park, Street, Coventry. As well as their motor scooter, they also made the Miniature motorcycle with the same 142cc ohv Norman engine, lightweight belt drive motorcycles with either 293cc
JAP or 269cc Villiers engines and larger scooters with 269cc Villiers or, some sources claim, 293cc JAP engines. The business built its machines 1919 to 1924.