Inside a vintage Soubitez dynamo


Continuing on from the Peugeot time machine, it was beginning to have a problem with the good ol' sidewall dynamo.  It appeared to be the original one,  however it was starting to seize up when engaged against the tyre sidewall.  Trying to turn it by hand was difficult and it was very stiff feeling, I suspected maybe that the grease inside had dried up or something like that.  With not too much to lose I decided to disassemble it to see what the problem was.



The first thing I removed was the nut on top of the roller.






From this the roller itself is threaded onto the shaft.  I was able to remove the roller from the shaft at this stage, however you may need to go to remove the bottom cover piece first...



Which unthreads from the body.


The insides are as simple as this, I was surprised by how clean it was inside for something nearly 40 years old.  I figured out that the difficult I had turning the dynamo was actually due to the roller binding on the neck of the body.

I gave the bushing for the shaft a bit of grease for good measure



Back on with the roller.  This time I moved it further up the shaft to prevent binding and gave it some loctite as well as a tightening with the locknut.  Soon after I gave it a test and it worked like a charm, purring along nicely with the flicker of the old Soubitez lights.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this, it was a valuable guide in servicing my Soubitez 89 dyno. One thing to note is the body on my 89 is reverse threaded to the base, so it's clockwise to loosen it. I found out the hard way and marred the finish a bit with my channel locks trying to get it off. I'm not sure if the model 10 is the same, but thought I'd mention it to anyone else trying to service their dyno. It seems to be working again and hopefully will hold up on a longer test ride.

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  2. Good information for restoration / maintenance. THANK YOU for sharing. It would be great if there was a way to put Teflon bushings in these, and replace the magnets with the rare earth neodymium magnets that are used in some hub dynos now. Same vintage look, but easier-spinning and more efficient.

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