I've got bad news about the new modified hub it's started to leak. I know some people will think its because I've taken it apart and that's damaged a seal. Whilst I can't rule it out as a cause I think it is far more likely to be due to the wheel bearing that has for some reason become loose. The same thing happened to another hub and its not the bearing that has failed it has just become loose on the axle. No idea at the moment what can be done about this.
As I had the hub off the bicycle I couldn't resist opening it to see how the bushings are doing. And this is another disappointment because it looks like they are wearing out faster than I would have liked. I've done 275 miles and there is a noticeable amount off both the I.D and O.D. They seem to be wearing unevenly as the O.D has lost 0.1mm on the planet side and 0.2mm nearest the end of the axle. The I.D has increased by a similar amount and has also worn less at the planet side.
The good thing is that they do seem to be saving the output side of the stator. Unfortunately the stator has worn slightly on the input side instead. I need to do more miles to know if things will settle down or continue. I was hoping the traction fluid would remain free of metal particles as I think its a major contributor to the seal failure's.
Some people might be thinking why does a bit of wear on the stator matter. I think it matters because if there is even the smallest amount of wear the planet axles will not be aligned correctly and this will reduce the efficiency. Its similar to having the wrong tracking on the wheel of a car, the friction will reduce fuel efficiency and eventually wear the tyre.
My conclusion from all this is that the N360s stator design is a complete failure. It might be a cheaper option to manufacture and is fine for the majority of occasional bike users but for long term serious use it's never going to work. A complete redesign is now the only option and I'm going to leave that to Fallbrook. I remember one of the selling points was no metal to metal contact which results in a long maintenance free life, sadly it turns out to be the complete opposite.
The plan now is to continue adding up the miles until the bushings fail or I get feed up with the reduced efficiency. I've modified the new planets being very careful to fit the bushings the same way so they can continue wearing in the same way. There has possibly been issues with axle ends coming off because they were much harder to remove. I had to modify a nail punch and use thicker metal as a support before I could knock them out.
The old set of planets have been returned to their original state and have been put back in to the test hub. Well 5 of them, I'll write about it in a different post under the test hub thread.