Oil

[Barry Creed]

I am looking for recommendations for gearbox oil on a 1939 bike.  I am unfamilier and want to get the best that I can.  Thanks in advance.

[mini-me]

Whats the gearbox make?
some use grease,

But there is bugger all advantage in using space age technology in a stone age machine

[iansoady]

You do need to supply more information, particularly make & model.

[kerabo]

On my 1936 bike the gearbox has a mixture of grease and oil as it don't use seals. I have found a modern grease that just flows and made for gearboxes that will be ideal for this.
Have a little extra.
Ken

[iansoady]

I used a similar one on my Sunbeam - originally made for Land Rover swivels if I remember correctly. It's called semi-fluid grease.

[Rex]

"Spherol"? It's what I use in the RE box.

[chaterlea25]

Hi All,
If the gearbox was designed to work with oil, grease can damage it   

John

[iansoady]

Yep, but it's Spheerol.

This kind of thing: https://www.penninelubricants.co.uk/product/semi-fluid-ep-greases/

Note feature no. 3......

[john.k]

if its a Norton,simply add oil when the leaks stop........cause its run dry...................I put some super brown oil in mine.......the horrible sticky stain on the concrete is immovable.........but you rarely see a Norton with rusty chrome on the back wheel rim........the oil leaking via the sprocket keeps the chain oiled nicely......and the wheel ....and the tyre tread.

[Barry Creed]

Thank you for all the comments so far.  The un named gearbox is on my RE Model D three speed hand change 1939 I think the same gearbox was used on the Model A.  If I had to take a guess I think it is a Sturmey Archer.  Thanks again.

[33d6]

It's an Albion gearbox. Royal Enfield had a love affair with Albion that stretches back for years and years. The routine Royal Enfield advice was to fill the gearbox with whatever engine oil you were using at the time. Albion boxes never used grease. Always used oil.
That said Royal Enfield also advised the following about oil leakage from the gearbox.
"It is sometimes found after a big mileage that some oil leakage occurs from the driving side of the gearbox, or from the bearing for the kick starter shaft. A simple and permissible method of preventing such leakage, or reducing it is to substitute a mixture of equal parts of SAE 50 oil and medium grade grease for pure engine oil."
So there you are, oil only and when you find it leaks like a sieve , a mixture of oil and grease. Logically, no fancy expensive stuff but the cheapest oil and grease you can get because you're going to use a fair bit.
Cheers,

[Barry Creed]

Thank you 33d6 for your info.  The box is neither Albion or Burmen as you say Albion much used.  I have studied hundreds of photos and various books and feel sure it is Sturmey Archer.  The Albion three and four speed (sometimes with gear indicator)   used for dispatch rider duties (WD/D) would be foot change.  Hundreds of the Model Ds with hand change were "pressed" into military service and used by women riders for light messaging duties, I digress, it must be written somewhere which boxes were used on the Model A but I have yet to find it, still looking.
Thanks again for all the input.

[R]

Pics in Enfield books for 1939 do show what looks like a small Sturmey Archer box in the Model A, and an Albion (hand change rigged) box in the Model D for that year.
But, Sturmey Archer was gone in - the early 1930s - so how could that be ??
Earlier years look to have had them also, so maybe some form of small Albion ?

No text I can find to clarify this.... yet.

It is mentioned places that Enfields used SA boxes in the early 1930s, across most (all ?) models.
And this is clearly evident in the brochure pics.

[mini-me]

Why not just post a photo for some accurate info rather than suppositions?

[john.k]

The Moss Gear Co of Aston Manor made a Sturmey lookalike up to 1940,when the MOD seized the works to make the computing AA gunsights needed in large numbers............if Moss is familiar,they also made car boxes for the likes of Jag and Rover in the sixties.