Sjtaylor

I’m fitting my 1985 Trek 670 with a triple and 28c tires. At least for now I need that triple to rides the hills in my neighborhood. I needed to remove the axle positioning screws to get the wheel far enough back in the dropouts to clear the derailleur clamp on the down tube. That’s working ok. The problem is the cable housing between the chainstay and rear derailleur. The cable stop built into the end of the chainstay is very shallow and nothing seems to fit securely there. You can see my hack in the attached photo. I’m using the left positioning screw as a wire tie anchor. It seems to work but this can’t be the best solution.

Any thoughts?

Bigbus

I think you done good!

ksryder

A step-down ferrule might work. Sometimes an LBS will have a few in a drawer somewhere.

Example:

trailangel

Cable and housing looks too long.
Is that brake housing or DR housing?
Have you tried 4mm housing with a plastic ferrel?

HillRider

You could shorten the section of cable housing between the rear of the chainstay and the derailleur to give it a less bowed configuration and enter the chainstay pocket more directly. Smaller tires (say 25 or even 23) would give more clearance behind the seat tube/fd clamp.

BTW, don't you love Trek running the shift cable through the chainstay? I had an '86 560 frame that ran it the same way and it made cable replacement a real pain. Be SURE to fasten a thread or string to the old cable as you remove it so you have something to pull and guide the new cable.

Sjtaylor

I did go to the lbs and we tried what he had.

Sjtaylor

It is brake cable housing. I tried to fill up the recessed area with something that would stay in. I haven’t tried the plastic housing end mentioned here. With the wire tie housing hack I could shorten the housing.

WizardOfBoz

Isn't brake cable larger in diameter than shift cable? Might be harder to fit in a hole designed for RD cable. Also, the RD cable might be more flexible to allow the hole to grab hold of the housing more securely. Also, assuming that your derailleur is STI, brake cable housing is spiral-wound and compresses. Shifter cable housing has some axial strands in the support and is not supposed to compress as much. The latter may not have too much influence in such a short section, but even so you might start by replacing brake cable housing with proper derailleur housing. And, as mentioned above, you might use a slightly shorter length.

BTW, what FD are you using? that FD clamp must be awful thick, or must have the fastening nut on the back or something. FD clamp should be pretty thin.