how do you guys get gears to work, i have the cable at maximum adjustment and nothing, seems like its to long any help appreciated,

Thats a tricky question mike. They say adjust the gear in second so you can just see the start of the solid metal of the chain through the liitle hole then fix the falcrum to suit. With one of my bikes i had to give up and take it to my local bike shop (they did it in about a minute!!)  

it either works straight away or takes hours of fiddling ive found.

also sometimes the R springs in the hub have worn or broke off and that stops it changing gears properly.

will try again at week end, pity rest of bike runs great

Try moving the fulcrum clip back towards the chainwheel a bit more Mike, sounds like the cable is too slack  

fulcrum clip ,  , is that the last clip before the the adjuster, i think your right by the way, very slack

heres a point on the other stars and stripes bike nice bit of cable sticks out

on this bike i am restoring, cable i think is seized inside, in other words i cant pull it through

pics which might clear this up, hopefully get it working without stripping hub

thats it mike pull the clip back till you can just see the start of the solid metal on the chain then tighten. Hopefully that will work.  

solid metal of toggle cable out of the plastic cover or out of the hub itself?

solid metal of toggle cable out of the plastic cover or out of the hub itself?

No just through the little hole in the toggle nut (i think i can just see the start of the metal rod in the last picture)  P.s i think you have a mk2 if the frame date is jan 1980! so it should have a full rear mudguard! (although it does look better with a short one) Check your frame date again mate they look like mk2 handle bars.