Shifter repair

[steve]

Wondering if anyone can help me out so I can ride tomorrow morning - my 105 shifter to the derailer stopped working on my afternoon ride. The cable was broken and I replaced it with a new cable but it still wont shift up or down. Even with the cable removed I cant get the shifter to click.

My guess is that the head of the broken cable is jamming the thing up but I cant see it for the life of me...Anyone got any suggestions?

Thanks

[Lister Farrar]

I asked Eric, as a fellow tinkerer, and he said this had just happened to Dolly. She took it to Oak Bay Bikes and Scotty fiddled with it for 45 minutes and got the cable head out.

Ona similar note, I had a frayed shifter cable messing up shifting. Fairfield suggested that STI shifters tend to stress cables with the tight curve at the lever end, and that replacing cables before they fray, maybe once a year?, is a good idea.

[steve]

Thanks for the advice Lister - I thought if anyone would come up with an answer it would be you. I took the bike to the shop and the shifter is gone and needs to be replaced. Apparently the Campagnolo shifters are repairable but the Shimano's are not as easy to take apart and fix. I bout the bike just under two years ago so there is a chance it will be covered by Shimano.

Its going to take a day or two to get a new shifter in so I tried to get some slicks onto my mountain bike for hills this AM and awoke to a flat at 6am... Cant seem to win this week!

Steve

[Lister Farrar]

Before you give up on it, consider these:

Basically, a WD40 shower. Apparently the fine springs and ratchets can get gummed up as the original manufacturers grease gets dried out and contaminated with dust. I've revived my early 90's dura ace STIs a couple of times with this, and a pair of dead Ultegra levers on my sons bike. Don't do it over a rug though... Google "STI repair WD40" for several hundred mentions on cycling discussion groups. I now do all our sti levers a couple of times a year even if they don't have problems.
Illustration of the spray hosing: (Scroll down past the rattle section). http://www.chainreaction.com/noisystilevers.htm

This one is more elaborate: http://www.billcotton.com/sti_shifter_repair.htm He goes through disassembly, making new springs, and re-assembly. I haven't done this, but I will definitely bow to you if you manage it.

With pictures even! http://www.norvil.net/pedal/service/shi ... /strip.php