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How to install these Suntour Bar-Con shifters?

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How to install these Suntour Bar-Con shifters?

Old 06-29-21, 12:50 PM
  #1  
Miele Man
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How to install these Suntour Bar-Con shifters?

Hi there people.

I have these Suntour bar-con shifters I'm trying to install into my handlebar. For some reason I can not get them to go in far enough so that I can put the anchor bolt into the bar-con shifter. Can someone please tell me what the problem is?




Thanks in advance for any and all help.

Cheers
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Old 06-29-21, 12:54 PM
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first they look like they are shimano not sun tour

I just took pair of suntour off so know how those go. dumb question have you loosened the hex bolt on the inside of the housing so that the expander will slip into the bar? it kinda looks like it is not loose
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Old 06-29-21, 01:20 PM
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How in blazes did I not notice those are Shimano shifters and not Suntour? I'm pretty sure that the guy I got them from said they were Suntour?

I snugged up the hex bolt on the inside after taking them back off the handlebar so I wouldn't lose anything.

When I put the shift lever into the body, the shift lever doesn't go far enough in to expose the retain bolt hole.

Thanks again and cheers
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Old 06-29-21, 04:26 PM
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If the bar's ID is too large the expanding wedge bolt will need to be turned so far that it's end can interfere with the lever's spool/drum. Placing a shim inside the bar to reduce the ID can be the solution. Wald makes a really nice shim for stems and posts that works well with only slight manipulation.

But this assumes it's the expander bolt that is the offending part. That should be easy to check.

Also the Shimano levers likely are the "old" version with a counter spring in the spool that balances against the der return springs. In theory the effort to move the lever in either direction is nearly the same, less so in application but an interesting difference from the ratchet and clutch design of the SunTour BarCons. This spring means that the lever needs to be slid into the bodywith the lever fully "pulled back/up". Andy (who long ago found out that he likes the SunTour design far better).
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Old 06-29-21, 06:21 PM
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Originally Posted by Andrew R Stewart
If the bar's ID is too large the expanding wedge bolt will need to be turned so far that it's end can interfere with the lever's spool/drum. Placing a shim inside the bar to reduce the ID can be the solution. Wald makes a really nice shim for stems and posts that works well with only slight manipulation.

But this assumes it's the expander bolt that is the offending part. That should be easy to check.

Also the Shimano levers likely are the "old" version with a counter spring in the spool that balances against the der return springs. In theory the effort to move the lever in either direction is nearly the same, less so in application but an interesting difference from the ratchet and clutch design of the SunTour BarCons. This spring means that the lever needs to be slid into the bodywith the lever fully "pulled back/up". Andy (who long ago found out that he likes the SunTour design far better).
That's the problem. I can't get the circular part of the lever to slide far enough into the body so that I can put the bolt through the body and the lever to anchor the lever to the body.

Here's the image again showing how far i can get the lever into the body.



thanks and cheers
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Old 06-29-21, 06:28 PM
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Originally Posted by Miele Man
That's the problem. I can't get the circular part of the lever to slide far enough into the body so that I can put the bolt through the body and the lever to anchor the lever to the body.

Here's the image again showing how far i can get the lever into the body.



thanks and cheers
if you take the lever off and look inside, isn't there a hex bolt or screw that loosens and tightens the expander bolt? I am guessing that it is getting in the way.....and is probably needs to be loosened. can you take the lever off and show pic of the inside?
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Old 06-29-21, 06:34 PM
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Originally Posted by squirtdad
if you take the lever off and look inside, isn't there a hex bolt or screw that loosens and tightens the expander bolt? I am guessing that it is getting in the way.....and is probably needs to be loosened. can you take the lever off and show pic of the inside?
I only snugged up the internal expander bolt AFTER I took the assemble off of the handlebar. I didn't want to lose anything.

The problem is that I can't get the circular section of the shift lever to slide far enough into the body so that I can put the bolt through the body and into the shift lever to keep the shift lever in place. Look at the image and you can see that the round hole for the shift lever bolt to screw into is not lined up with the hole in the body and thus I can't insert the bolt into the shift lever.

Cheers
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Old 06-29-21, 06:47 PM
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Okay. I managed to get the shift lever onto the body and the bolt through both. However neither shift lever ratchets or stays in the position I put it into. The lever springs back to a resting position. Frustrating.

Any ideas?

Cheers
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Old 06-30-21, 12:07 AM
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Hi, we can all see that the lever was not going into the housing far enough, but what we cannot see is what was blocking it, or why it does not work properly.

If you could take the lever out of the housing, then take a picture of each side of the lever and the inside of the housing then hopefully we might see what the actual problem is. It might be something has not been assembled correctly in the lever, for example.
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Old 06-30-21, 01:37 AM
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VeloBase.com - Component: Shimano L-600 Fingertip Control Barcons

​​​​​​https://www.flickr.com/photos/stronglight/5230303813/

​​​​​​https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...fter-help.html
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Old 06-30-21, 06:17 AM
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Originally Posted by Miele Man
Okay. I managed to get the shift lever onto the body and the bolt through both. However neither shift lever ratchets or stays in the position I put it into. The lever springs back to a resting position. Frustrating.
Those Shimano "Fingertip Control" bar-cons do not ratchet; they're more similar to the Simplex "retrofriction" shifters. Lever tension is set by tightening the bolt that holds the lever in the body.
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Old 06-30-21, 07:11 AM
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This, as I tried to describe in post #4. Andy
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Old 06-30-21, 10:24 AM
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Originally Posted by Andrew R Stewart
This, as I tried to describe in post #4. Andy
Okay. Here's the lever removed from the body again.

There's the spring inside the lever. The problem is that no matter how tight I fasten the bolt that goes through the lever and into the body, the lever "springs back when I release it. It does NOT stay in the position I put it into.



These shifters would be a lot easier to set up if they were pure friction without the internal spring.

So, how do I get the shift lever to stay in the position I put it in? Or is that only possible when the shift lever cable is attached to a derailleur?

Cheers
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Old 06-30-21, 06:48 PM
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'This spring means that the lever needs to be slid into the body with the lever fully "pulled back/up"' quoting myself.

" Or is that only possible when the shift lever cable is attached to a derailleur?" Yes. You install the cable and let the lever seek it's own position. Then tighten the anchor bolt after both pushing the lever all the way to what would be the high gear position and tugging on the free cable end to insure all slack is gone. Easier with 3 hands but not hard to do with two.
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Old 06-30-21, 11:55 PM
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Originally Posted by Miele Man
Okay. Here's the lever removed from the body again.




Cheers
Is that lever at the top in the right body, or the right way around in that body?

It has that rectangular block on the side, which slides into a slot in the body, but the slot only looks deep enough to accept the block if the lever had the cable passing through it from the other direction.
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Old 07-01-21, 08:18 AM
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Originally Posted by Geepig
Is that lever at the top in the right body, or the right way around in that body?

It has that rectangular block on the side, which slides into a slot in the body, but the slot only looks deep enough to accept the block if the lever had the cable passing through it from the other direction.
As I mentioned in Post #8, I managed to get the lever installed onto the body. However when I move the lever to any other position other than the one shown in this new image the lever snaps back to its original position.




Thus my questions are:

#1. Is that normal?

#2. Is it only when the cable is attached to the derailleur that the lever stays in a position it is moved to?

Thanks again and cheers
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Old 07-01-21, 09:18 AM
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Is there resistance when you move the lever all the way to the other position? It is important to visualize what is happening to the derailleur when you move the lever from one position to the other. The position the lever is in now would put the derailleur over the largest cog. When the lever is at the other end of its travel the derailleur would be over the smallest cog and the spring tension of the derailleur would keep the lever from snapping back. The reason for this is that the spring in the lever reduces the effort needed to shift to a larger cog
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Old 07-01-21, 09:37 AM
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Originally Posted by alcjphil
Is there resistance when you move the lever all the way to the other position? It is important to visualize what is happening to the derailleur when you move the lever from one position to the other. The position the lever is in now would put the derailleur over the largest cog. When the lever is at the other end of its travel the derailleur would be over the smallest cog and the spring tension of the derailleur would keep the lever from snapping back. The reason for this is that the spring in the lever reduces the effort needed to shift to a larger cog
Thanks. I'll hook one of them up to a derailleur and see if the shift lever stays in it gear I select.

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