Sturmey-Archer three-speed to Single-Speed

My girl friend's beater bike had a Sturmey-Archer three-speed hub. The gears weren't working, and she was using it as a single-speed. The indicator was hanging loosely (it wasn't connected to any cables).

Now the indicator has fallen out of the hub, and she can't find it. The hub has been freewheeling in both directions.

Is there a way to make the hub stop freewheeling in both directions and make it a single-speed again?

You can pick up those indicator chains on the bay for a couple of quid, they just screw in nice and easy.

I'd pick one up and screw it to the right tension so the hub is catching the gear you need.

It's a botch, but i've used a hairpin to thread through the chain link part of the indicator to force it to hold its position at a certain tension and so hold a certain gear. The hairpin stops the hub from pulling the indicator chain back into the hub.

Hmm, without the indicator chain it should just run in high gear... shouldn't it? Perhaps the hub is all gummed up inside.

Anyway, the chains are cheap and available on ebay as oller says.

Thanks! Just ordered an indicator chain.

Hmm, without the indicator chain it should just run in high gear... shouldn't it? Perhaps the hub is all gummed up inside.

Anyway, the chains are cheap and available on ebay as oller says.

The advised setup is that the cable be completely slack in top gear which would suggest that loose indicator chain/no indicator chain should yes, run in top gear.

I'd suspect another problem with the hub.