dirtydozen

Hello, something kind of weird just happened to me today.

I had some derailleurs indexing issues the past weeks but it has been resolved by a pro mechanic (with struggles)

I did a ride last weekend, worked perfectly. Today, 40/50k's in it worked perfectly, but suddenly i'm stuck in the big ring (and trimmed, so as far as possible on the right).

I press on my shifter I can feel the click but nothing at all happens, not a single movement on the front derailleur/cable.

I pressed that thing 100 times nothing happens, and if I try to use the lever as I would to go from middle ring to big ring, there are no clicks, just as when it's working well and you are on the big ring already.

Groupset is 105 5700.

Andrew R Stewart 

First thing is possible gummy shifter internals form old lube's oil drying out and the soapy remains being sticky. next up could be a cable beginning to fray inside the shifter. Both are far easier to deal with sooner then when dealt with later. Andy

dirtydozen

Thank you Andy.

I am going to unwrap the bars and have a closer look on what's going on.

EDIT :

Shifter cable looks nicely in place, but I can see there is a difference between both shifters.

This is the working one : https://imgur.com/PjgxP7S
Not working one : https://imgur.com/dF2oCZ6

We can see a gray thing almost popping out of one hole on the working shifter whereas on the other one the mechanism appears to be in a different position.
Elsewhere on the shifter I can see a part of the mecanism moving when I press the shifter, it makes another part move but that's it

EDIT 2 :

Actually, in the manual : https://imgur.com/xOCAs37
if part number 10 is screwed, it looks like the photo of the non working shifter, maybe both shifters just dont exactly look the same

dirtydozen

I tried putting some WD40 but it didn't change anything sadly. Cables are a month old they should be ok, I'll wait a bit before stripping them out, for some reason I always struggle to put them back on and to index the gears properly. I'd like to see if there is something else I can try before unstripping the cables, mean while i'll just stay on the flat roads where i can cope with having just the big ring.

bldegle2

If the cables were replaced a month back, I would be checking that right shifter for possible small wire contamination. I had exactly the same problem last year, replaced the cable, worked for one ride, then balky. Had three shards of wire from the previous cable still inside the shifter. Followed a U tube vid and cleaned out the pieces with tweezers and a skinny needle-nose plier...while you are at it, you can flood the internals with WD40 to free up everything, then a spray of your favorite liquid lubircant via a straw attactment to all the nooks and crannies, then add a coating of grease to everything mechanical you can reach with a finger. Wipe any excess off. BTW, the shifter returned to normal operation after the above mentioned attention...


Note: Once cleaned out, you have to have the new shifter cable installed, then with the free end secured you can put pressure on the shifter as you squirt and work to free up the internals, only way to get the cog lips to slip past each other...

dedhed

Is there an adjuster in the cable somewhere? Try loosing the adjustment and working the shifter.

dirtydozen

Ok thanks for your input, I will take a look if I end up removing the cables.

Yes this was a good idea but i'm afraid nothing happened. Cable tension doesn't seem to be the problem here.

dirtydozen

Any other input before I start to take the cables off ? thanks

blamester

Loosen the pinch bolt on the FD. It should shift to the small. If it does it's shifter or cables. If not fd.
And now try the shifter while keeping a little tension on the cable with your fingers.
Does the shifter work correctly and does the cable move smoothly both ways?

dirtydozen

Alright so now that I enjoyed a bit my bike on the big ring it's time to really look into the problem.

I unbolted the cable off the FD, and surprise... shifter now clicks again and its smooth. I inspected cable and shifter but everything looks ok, so I don't really understand what was the problem.

Btw FD went back in the little ring straight after unbolting the cable off so that's good.

I guess i'll just clean the shifter (even though i've already put loads of wd40 and lubricant) change cable and set it all up but I mean everything is looking good so i don't really see what i am changing in the end.

When I put tension on the cable (by hand) it doesn't click anymore.

Any ideas guys ? thanks

dirtydozen

Shifter clicks well without any cable in and with cable but no tension at all

With cable tension increase (even at low overall tension) doesn't shift anymore.

I was playing with the shifter for a while and putting WD40, number of tries before a click with cable tension was reduced to 0/1/2, that was a big win and I couldn't get it to improve so I wiped out excess and prepare to grease the mechanism.

Suddenly it wouldn't click anymore for like 40 tries, then it worked once and since then I can't get a single click out of it.