stardognine

I recently acquired a set of XTR M952 brifters, which are the first ones marked for Mega 9, rather than 8-speed. These were gunked up with old grease when I got them, and still are, lol, because I haven't cleaned them just yet.

Now on to the pertinent question. The left shifter, for the chainrings, is supposed to be for either 2 or 3 rings, adjustable I think. 🤔 How do you change that? It's probably incredibly simple, but I'm not seeing it in a search, and would prefer NOT to screw something up, by experimenting. 🙄😉

BTW, it feels like it's set for 2 rings now, and I want to use 3, hence this thread. I still need to clean, like I say, and I'd just feel better, knowing how things are "supposed" to sit, clean or dirty. 😉

Thanks. 🙂

Ronsonic 

https://si.shimano.com/#/

There are several levels of manuals there, the Dealer's Manuals are pretty comprehensive.

dsbrantjr

First rule of troubleshooting is to fix what you know is wrong. I would suggest cleaning it up and lubricating it first, it may start shifting to 3 positions when everything is moving freely.
Edit: if there are 2 "clicks" the shifter is set up for 3 rings already.

stardognine

Thanks very much, that's exactly what I needed. 👍

I might be getting old & senile, I "usedta" search pretty good. 🙄😉

stardognine

Turns out you were right, cleaning fixed them right up. 👍 I kinda hoped & expected it would, but was trying to cover all the possibilities. I had a weird feeling, that there was a little switch or button somewhere, to change from 2-speed to 3-speed. 🤔😉

BTW, not trying to sound like a commercial, but I used a spray called White Lightning 2 in 1, which is a degreaser and lube, combined. 🙂

Retro Grouch 

I used to own a 9-speed Ultra equipped road bike and a 9-speed Ultra equipped tandem. The road bike had 2 chainrings and the tandem had 3 but they both used the same model Ultegra brifter with 4 shifting detents. On my double equipped road bike I had 2 shifting positions for each chainring. On the triple equipped tandem I had one shifting position on the granny, two on the middle ring and one for the big ring. Maybe that's hows your XTR shifter works too.

stardognine

It sounds like you're describing trimming, maybe. 🤔 I know it took me awhile to figure that out, on my previous XT shifter pods.

These XTRs just started working well, as soon as I shot that cleaner inside them. I mean in about a minute. 👍 I think someone else described that gunk inside, as being like hardened glue, and that's pretty accurate. Probably most degreasers would work well enough, but that's what's needed, alright. 🙂

WizardOfBoz

Glad it worked out, but I have one request: make your thread subject more specific. Not doing so forces people who may have no interest or relevant knowledge to open your post and read it. Not to be too pointed, but its disrespectful of other's time.

ramzilla

Brifter mechanicals seem to be very similar to what is inside an ordinary rachet (socket) wrench to me. Not much to them. I pull the rubber hoods off. Soak them in a container of diesel fuel. Put on nitrile gloves & manually work them up & down and all around. Drain & dry. Replace the hoods. Bolt onto handlebars. Install new cables. Good as new! BAM!!!! Lets go riding.

Jeff Wills

That's not what I would use. I'm not certain what's in the "2 in 1" spray, but their chain lube "sets up as a dry wax film" (their ad copy). IMO that's a recipe for gunked-up shifters. I used solvent sprays followed by petroleum-based lube and my XTR M900 (8-speed) shifters are still perfect 10 years after I gave them this treatment. That bike doesn't get a bunch of use so there's ample opportunity for them to stop working. So far so good.

jimc101

2x or 1x didn't exist for mainstream MTB back when M952 came out, so 3x was the only option. the 2x option only became available when 2x took off about 10 years back, and then it's normally done with a switch on the shifter.

stardognine

Yeah, that's where I confused myself. I was just trying to educate myself better about it, before I screwed something up. 😉 The left shifter was only moving once, for 2 positions, before cleaning, and I just don't have the hands-on experience, to know when those switches came out. 🤔🙂

I'm not stuck on using this spray lube, either, it's just what I found first, that seems to work reasonably well. 😉

And for the rude comment dude, get over yourself. Nobody made you read this thread. 🙄