Elbeinlaw

I was rushing to do something and messed up a shifter cable. I ended up with not only split ends, but having split ends for inches down the length of the cable. I have a replacement, which I will put on tonight, but I'm curious. When this happens--when the unravelling goes beyond the first few inches, and you have the wire strands messed up for inches down the cable--is there anything that can be done to repair it?

Eggman84

If it is truly just "unraveled' than you can twist the individual strands back together, generally the individual strands will nestle back together. But if you have bent an individual strand then it will never lay back smoothly. You can untwist 1 or 2 bent strands and cut them off above the bend, then twist them back into place. Otherwise, you just have to cut off the damaged section.

Iride01 

New cable that is way too long anyway? Just cut it off. Otherwise try to roll or twist it together well enough to run through the cable housing. As long as any of the unraveled part is out of the housing, I don't see a big issue.

I suppose there might be a strength and longevity issue for some, if that is going to bother you, get another.

pdlamb

Sounds like you need a different shampoo.

​​​​Eggman84 has it right; if you can run your fingers down the cable and twist it back into shape, it'll work just fine. If you've got some extra length, you might want to cut off 1/2" or so before you try to squeeze the cable through some housing.

dsbrantjr

You could also try using some KrazyŽ-type glue to hold the ends of the strands together, or twist-weld them if there is enough length:

Elbeinlaw

This was brilliant. Thank you.

Velo Mule

When almost all cable was galvanized, we used to solder then ends. Now with stainless steel cables the usual technique is to ferrule the end and crimp it.

This twist welding, I hadn't seen before. I may have to give it a try. It looks neat. I like how the wire, if done with some tension on it, will draw the wire diameter down before twisting off.

It looks like they are using steel wire cable. I wonder how stainless might work differently. I would think that you could just sand the heat affected area and get it looking pretty good again. You should not need paint on stainless steel.

If anyone tries it on a stainless steel cable, please let us know how it works. And please post pictures.

shelbyfv

If it's not already too short you can cut off the mess and use the cable for the front. If you put it away for later it will help to label it ("short" or whatever.)

cxwrench

The 'ferrule' goes on the housing, not the cable. The cable gets a cable crimp.

JohnDThompson 

Twist-weld is a clever idea. One drawback is that using a propane/air torch creates a fairly long heat-affected zone on the cable, which the video does note. VAR made an electric version of this idea that minimizes the heat-affected zone; I suspect that cable manufacturers like Jagwire use something like that to finish the ends of their cables. I wonder if a spot-welder could be used for this purpose?

dsbrantjr

I agree that commercial cables appear to have the ends welded, perhaps by a capacitive-discharge type of apparatus. One could minimize the heat-affected zone by use of a heat sink on the cable; clamping it close to the weld point with the vise would also be helpful..

Crankycrank

I've used the twist weld method on around 20 stainless cables with a mini-butane torch and no problems yet with the heat reducing the life of the cables or harming the derailleur/brakes which the cable is attached to when I do this. Of course, use your common sense not to point the flame in the wrong direction but if you're not comfortable with this just take out the cable and do it separately. Took me awhile to figure out to turn the cable slowly instead of a quick zing with the drill and well worth the extra anal effort IMO.

lajt

I noticed if I tug too much on the drill then the cable slides out of the chuck no matter how hard I've clamped it down. If I just keep it at the same distance and not let it get pulled closer, though, it seems to work. I'm not able to accomplish the nice tapered point like they do in the video, maybe because I can't successfully tug on it, but the cable tip does fuse together nicely. I'm no wizard mechanic but this technique really works. The soldering iron technique doesn't work for me, maybe because the cable is stainless steel or maybe because it has a coating. Twist-weld, on the other hand--this is the one that truly seems superior to the crimped caps.
Here's a pic of test runs with a scrap of Jagwire stainless brake cable. You can see how the tip gets wound more tightly.

Retro Grouch 

I'm thinking it might be cheaper to buy a new cable