Paul J

I put a Campy 10 speed compact group on my mid 90's Eddy Merckx. The frame of course was built before compact gearing so the front derailleur braze on tab seems to be too high on the seat tube for the 50x34 set-up. The bike shifts very poorly and can not seem to get it shifting well. As you can see it doesn't really look that high above the chain ring. This is my everyday rider so I don't really care what brand the der is but want good shifting. Does anyone have ideas for this?

Iride01 

It's shifting poorly on the front? In what way?

Did you just change rings or did you change the entire crank? If the entire crank then is the chain ring spacing different on it than what the original is? A close up pic of the front DR from both the right side and directly above might help us decide for ourselves if height is a problem or not.

I don't have any experience with Campy stuff other than my old Raleigh when friction on the downtube. The Campy front DR worked very well with a 53/39.

You might consider if you can get the gearing you want by going back to the original size chainrings, changing the cassette and maybe rear DR.

Paul J

The bike was originally built up with 9 speed Durace in 53x39 and I switched it over to the compact 50x34 Campy Centaur 10 speed group that I pulled from a donor bike. The derailleur seems to be close enough to the large chain ring but it drops the chain on the outside if I'm switching from the small to large if I'm in one of the smaller cogs and then it won't shift out of the big ring sometimes. I love the compact set-up as a 66 year old but it has been a pain. I will take a closer picture when I get home. This is the only one I had available. More to come, thanks for any help you all can provide.

bikeshopben

Silly question, but have you started simple? Ss cable tension good, high and low limits properly config'd?

Drew Eckhardt 

You can adjust height using a Wickwerks fitlink
https://wickwerks.com/products/fit-link-adapter/
but probably have a high limit too outboard and/or tail too inboard.

HillRider

Hard to diagnose without seeing the bike in person but this sounds like a high limit screw mis-adjustment.

Bigbus

I'm with BikeshopBen on this one. It sounds from your description to be an adjustment (tune up) issue. If the stops had been set properly, no matter which rear cog you were in, it wouldn't climb over the chain ring. Did you set the little screw inside that presses against the seat tube for alignment. Lots of people miss that one. Good luck

Iride01 

Besides the high limit adjust mentioned above, did you notice if the new crank changed your chain line to the rear cogs?

zacster

I went from Campy 10 regular to C10 compact and didn't have any problems. It just worked. I'm on my third crank now, a Chorus UT compact, the prior was FSA, the original was Chorus 53/39 square taper.

Paul J

Thanks for the insight, I'll look into these.

On this, I'm not sure I knew about a separate set screw. I'll check that tonight.
[QUOTE=...Did you set the little screw inside that presses against the seat tube for alignment. Lots of people miss that one. Good luck[/QUOTE]

A couple of more pictures.

Drew Eckhardt 

The height is probably OK. The rotation is not - the tail is too far inboard which in turn requires the high limit screw to be set too far outboard which leads to dumping the chain.

Shift to big ring x small cog.

Make the deraileur cage parallel to the chain.

Set the high limit for 1/16" of clearance.

Reference the Park Tool instructions: https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair...eur-adjustment

The tail on A is too far outboard, B too far inboard like yours, and C is correct

caloso

Yeah, it's a bit high, but I would think you'd have a little more adjustment down in the braze-on slot. Are you sure you have it all the way to the bottom of the slot?

Mackers

You have an old 9S front derailleur (on the left).

As Campagnolo and now you found out, it will not reliably shift a 16 tooth difference (which is why the early square taper compacts came with either 50-36 or 48-34 rings)

Either get the proper 10S compact derailleur (on the right) or a post 2009 10S derailleur.

That should eliminate 99% of the problem.

Drew Eckhardt 

Daytona and Centaur which followed due to trademark issues are both 10 speed groups.

Regardless, the need for a CT or CT + Standard derailleur may remain.

Mackers

Right.

So where did my 9S Centaur come from?

Paul J

Thanks, I was able to pick-up a front derailleur like the one on the right. I will be getting it installed later.