Disabling the Freewheel on a 3 speed hub

[WisdomWarlord]

I know it sounds crazy but trust me, there is a yet-to-be-revealed- method to my madness :-)
I want to disable the Freewheel on an older 3-speed hub while leaving the hub shifting functional. How can I do this?

[wheelbender6]

There is an article about the conversion on the website of the late great Sheldon Brown.
http://sheldonbrown.com/awfixed.html
I believe that there are fixed 3 speed hubs for sale on EBay, made by Sturmey Archer.

[Neon]

I didn't think it would be possible. The power had to be taken away from them in order to shift gears. Locking the freewheel would keep power on at all times. But what do i know?

[WisdomWarlord]

Shoot! You're right Neon. They can be commanded to shift with power applied, but the shifting doesn't actually happen until power is removed. Ok, time to find another way around it. Thanks for the input.

[Lee_K]

I use 3-peed hubs for mid drives and they work fine without disabling the freewheel. I was wondering what was your original goal.

[WisdomWarlord]

Hi Lee. I am considering rigging up a 3 speed hub as a drive wheel for a friction drive, and wanted a direct drive to reduce shocks to the hub when power is applied. I'd have a jackshaft with a frewheel on it instead. I was considering using a 107cc 4 stroke, but an going to use a 50cc 4 stroke instead shock won't be as harsh, if I still do the friction drive. I'm expecting the hub, once knurled, to do a better job and be more efficient at transferring power because of its larger diameter.

[Lee_K]

That's an interesting idea. If you put the S/A sprocket on the right side, then you need to drive the hub backward and need to disable the freewheel. I have taken a bunch of these apart, but it's been a long time & I don't remember all the details, but I believe the ratchets allow it to over run the speed that is not selected so it can not be disabled.

If you put the sprocket on the right side and dive it clockwise it should work without any modification.