Voodoo76

Working with a set of Super Record shifters that don't generate enough friction to hold a gear. Worse on front than rear. These are NOS shifters & I'm guessing that the nylon spacers just got hard/slippery sitting over time. Any tips on improving operation?

Robvolz 

Yes, get some wonder bread

and a hole puncher

and a nickel

make a plastic gasket. So much more grip.

robert

tgot 

I'm not clear on how that works. Do you have a U-tube channel?

oneclick 

Retro-friction ones?

Trakhak

I'm probably not the only one who guessed that this would be about Campy shifters.

For the Campy downtube shifters on my bikes, I used to pinch the threads on the D-ring bolt with a Vice Grip, very gently, to provide an interference fit. It doesn't take much deformation of the threads to keep the bolt from slipping in use.

I hope this suggestion doesn't upset anyone, like the narrator in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance suggesting to his horrified traveling companion that he should shim the slipping handlebars on his pristine BMW bike with a piece cut out of a beer can. ("Best shim material in the world!")

Edit: blue Loctite would work just as well.

JohnDThompson 

Make sure you have all the parts and that they're installed properly:

Kabuki12

I have not had that issue with any of my Campagnolo shifters , even the bar ends. I am able to hold gears with hand tightening the D-ring on the DT shifters.The bar ends are a bit fussy to get just right but once set are good . I would suggest a good cleaning and look at a diagram to make sure they are assembled correctly . Someone here should have a copy of the exploded view of the assembly.

albrt 

I still wanna know about the Wonder Bread gasket. Are we making it out of bread or out of the plastic bag?

If we're using the bag, does it matter which color circle you cut out?

Voodoo76

Yes, installed correctly, parts match the braze-on exploded view above. Cleaned and installed a couple times. Hand tight the rear just barely holds. The front shifts right back down to the small ring as soon as you let go of the lever. I’ll try cleaning again & perhaps rough up the friction surfaces with a little 400 grit?

Kabuki12

It could be that one or more of the surfaces are worn so that when tightening the D ring there is not enough pressure on the lever. I have the braze on ones on my Colnago and I really don’t have to tighten them that hard.

base2 

Take note of part 190/06 It is not intuitive. But, it is very comon to install it backwards. Backwards installation (dome mating to dome) causes all kinds of isues. Domes mate to squares is correct for forgiving, consistant & easy friction adjustment. Study the drawing.

Prowler 

I’m having no trouble with my 70s band clamp Campy shifters. At initial overhaul I cleaned everything out and reassembled with a light film of grease. I’ve redone that a couple of times over the past 10 years. They both work flawlessly. I do need to snug the adjusting nuts a whisker, this time of year, due to the colder weather.

As for spacers, I’ve had success making new plastic spacers out of milk jugs, that translucent white plastic material. Use nice sharp tools for clean edges. Seems to be just the right thickness. As to Wonder Bread: good for chocking a tractor wheel. Not worth opening, let alone eating.

1989Pre 

Try reducing your cable tension. If not, a tiny drop of Loctite (I use red) on the bolt. Fibre washers are available. As long as the outside diameter is correct, that's about all you need, The hole can be easily expanded at home.

oneclick 

Ok, I thought you had the Super Record (retro-friction) ones.
For the Record shifters -

If you problem is that they never get tight enough, make sure the two bits that are supposed to apply pressure on the shift lever are not hanging up on the flatted part of the pivot - look for a machining flaw or bit of grit that would prevent them from seating correctly.

If instead once tight they loosen over time, the two pressure bits are shifting slightly on the flats, so you would need to stop that - judicious application of a sharp punch next the flat on the inner surface of the outer bit is what I'd use.

sced

I still want to know the Wonder Bread answer

repechage

I always wondered why on one side the washer was 019/07 and the other 019/05. These washers often were bagged 2 per side. The later shifters as shown here used plastic formed washers that pressed against the levers. There was debate at the time, on the earlier design grease was used, often to get them to hold on the later design, assemble the pressing surfaces dry. The movement is less fluid, but does retain better. From time to time one side of the lever received a small amount of grease, the “backside”. The outed formed nylon washer is keyed to the mount.

I do not like this revised design, I am sure it was cheaper to make.

be sure to test thread in the D ring bolt to make sure that any paint or debris is not sending you a false sense of tension. Tapping these out is a pain as one needs a “bottom” tap

Voodoo76

Appreciate all of the responses. I'll clean everything up again and verify that nothing is interfering with compressing the friction washer on the lever. I have the levers with the nylon washers 0190/4 & 0190/6.

repechage

grey haired plumbers would use a small bit of white wonder bread to act as a sponge and block dribbles of water near a copper line repair, any water was clear of the soldier joint and the bread would dissolve quickly enough later.

Rick_D

Is it possible to introduce some friction with one of the carbon fiber pastes?
https://www.performancebike.com/fini...750101/p332614

This sounds tweaky--either finagling the adjustment screws to remain in place (Loctite) or making the works less slippery.

JohnDThompson 

I suspect it's not referring to the bread itself, but to the clip that closes the bag, as a source for plastic from which a spacer can be made:

arex

I heard of an apprentice plumber that didn't have any white bread handy, so he used the whole-wheat bread from his lunch sandwich. The kernels of wheat fouled the valve pretty good.

repechage

you might consider using a second “Lock” washer under the D ring bolt. As I wrote earlier, Campagnolo eventually supplied 4 washers with a lever assembly kit, enough for 2 per side.

repechage

‘the dark side of Roman Meal bread.

other plumber note, place the weld seam of a “Black” waste line at 12 o’clock- I just had a repair where the weld seam split open, it was near the bottom. Bad pipe? Yeah, might never know if it had been at the top.
he also used Henry’s roof sealant at any no-hub connectors. Smart thinking.

Voodoo76

It was definitely the D-Ring screw bottoming out before squeezing the lever to a correct amount of friction. More on the Front than the Rear. I chased the threads on the D-Ring and in the boss with minimal improvement. A second lock washer was the fix. Didn't have any metric on hand but a #10 was close enough to work.

dddd

Maybe not for these levers, but any missing shim or washer might result in the screw bottoming in it's hole(?).

Old grease can leave a very viscous film that makes it hard to move the lever, but which then slips over time, but a little oil or WD40 can break that up and restore correct operation.
Same goes for inside of the steerer, where the stem expander perhaps fails to grip as expected.

Often, as oneclick mentioned, an anti-rotation washer can have a little play on the boss flats, allowing the ring to loosen a tiny bit with each gear change in one direction or the other (left vs. right lever).
Fixing this is very hard, because the washer metal is VERY hard. I've struggled to find tools hard enough to displace any metal adjacent to the flats...

With certain levers including Simplex (plastic) levers or any levers having plastic friction washers, fresh grease (perhaps the wrong grease) can at times be too slippery. Adding a drop of light oil as I always do (and/or patiently allowing the surfaces to seemingly become "contaminated" with metal wear material) restores the grip. One might suspect certain anti-friction additives used in modern greases here (some contain Teflon or other slippery polymers).

Sometimes, as 1989Pre mentions, reducing the cable tension (or lo-limit screw tension) will prevent certain instances of slippage down from the largest cog.