polyneux

I've bought a used bike that has an XCD-6000 rear derailleur on it. There seems to be play in the cage housing jockey/pulley part of the derailleur. It is only apparent when it is in the largest rings on the back, with the cage fully lowered/extended. You can see a bit of deflection where the cage meets the upper RD body. You can also wiggle it with your hands.

I'm not super familiar with working on RDs, is there a screw or something that could be knocked or worn loose over time to create this play or is it the derailleur dead?

And if its the latter would it be better to replace with the same (NOS available in a few places) or do upgrade to something more modern?

There is evidence on the outside that it may have taken a hit but the connection point to the frame is not bent.

Iride01 

Big thing is whether or not it is shifting properly or can be adjusted to make it shift properly. Sometimes people for the first time discovering play in something think it bad when it's normal.

Though too much of anything can be a bad thing. So does it work correctly or is it giving you any real issues?

Welcome to BF!

polyneux

I've done one round of adjustments. The cable was definitely slack and had some "dead" clicks on the indexing thumb shifter. Now it shifts to all 6. As of that time there was some noise I couldnt get out of it.

I'm going to take another pass at it today and see if I can get it together. The chain has also some signs of abuse. Marks on the sides of the links where the cogs have been grinding into it. Not sure if that's because of worn mech or simply bad adjustment.

I have a few other bikes of about that vintage and none of them have that same play so it thought me to ask (though they aren't the "exact" same)

And thanks!

Iride01 

New DR's are surprisingly inexpensive. Though for compatibility with your bike and other components you might not find something that won't require you to also change other components.

Slack in the cables and shifts that don't shift are cable issues or shifter issues. Possible the cable slipped in the pinch bolt on the DR. Cable housings not secure in the cable stops and ferrules. Or the shifter has a frayed cable inside it or the shifter is just wearing out.

If you had to adjust the limit screws on the DR, then I might suspect it took a good whack or something is wearing at some of it's pivot points. Limit screws in a perfect world only need to be set once.

smd4

Not too familiar with Sun Tour parts, but it looks like a regular slant-parallelogram design. If it's anything like Shimano, the cage will attach to the derailleur body with a bolt that can be tightened if it's loose.

polyneux

Well folks the story is pretty short and ends here.

I went to change the chain and went ahead and took the derailleur off, evidently the combination of chain and being installed was the only thing holding it together and it all came slinging apart!
It seems as if the cast...sleeve that the cage bolt went into was broken, thus the wiggle. And when I released the tension with the chain or something like that the spring came undone.

I guess the knock that there's evidence off may have broken the cast bit and it was just holding on.

smd4

Problem solved! Now off to eBay for a new RD!

polyneux

Hah!

The NOS is in the $100s for that exact RD, I wonder if there's an accushift upgrade that would work.

smd4

That I don't know. I'm sure someone here does though. Good luck!

Iride01 

• What model bike is it on?
• What model of shifter do you have? If model not known, then friction or indexed and downtube or bar shifter.
• How many speeds on the rear?

polyneux

The model is a 88 (I believe) Schwinn High Sierra. Doesn't look like the 89 catalogue pics I can find and matches other 88 pics on either decal or whole color scheme and bottom U brake config.

It had from what I can tell to be stock accushift xcd 6000 in all parts... crank/rings (two are ovalized), front d., rear d, I'm guessing the freewheel too (6 speed). From what I can tell online the shifters also match, 6 speed indexing on the right and a ratcheting type thing on the left.

Yesterday I picked up NOS an entire accushift set; front, back, and shifters even including the box and manual. I think that will do me for the short or long term. I got nervous looking into upgrades about the compatibility of things and the possibility of having to switch everything else out.

The goal is to convert to touring (It basically already is) and I'm probably not going to do a drop conversion so As long as it all works and is in decent shape I'll probably be fine, just don't want anything that's going to explode apart.

Looking closely at the broken rear I don't really understand how it held together so long, theres corrossion set it on the breaks (ie not clean and recent) and it really seems like there's just a little keyhole and the derailleur didn't rotate to the magic "explode apart" angle until I started to take it off. Interesting.

masi61

Just curious: which complete Accushift set did you pick up? I would imagine it would work for your Schwinn High Sierra which I presume is 3 x 7 gearing. As far as I know the rear derailleur “swing” or cable pulled per click that was unique to SunTour should be the same for both 6, 7 and 8 speed versions. Accushift 6 speed freewheels have the spacers that are a different dimension on the bottom 3 cogs compared to the larger 3 cogs but the RD swing take this into account. This is why you cannot run Shimano if you want it to index properly.

$100 for an XCD-6000 RD I imagine is a bit of a “post-covid” scarcity premium price. They actually are really pretty rear derailleurs new, used XC Pro RD’s have gone up in price on eBay as well.

Let us know how your set up works in actual practice.

polyneux

Oops. I thought I wrote that in the post. It's a XCD-6000 set. So multiple RD only for that price, and this was a whole NOS box set with FD, BD, chain, shifters, and some other bobs for around the same. Figured it would keep the thing stock or close and I'd have more spare parts and it solves the problem for the time being.

Since its the exact same I'm thinking it will work out fine. And yes it is a 6 speed, I looked later and noticed the spacing like you mentioned.

But the parts price-and-availability has got me curious about converting. I guess it would be a large up front price but...replacement freewheels or whatever being 17 due to mass production compatibility vs 78 for being rare. Not sure. But I think what I ordered will give me time to think about it

smd4

Nice score!

polyneux

So I finally got the set today and it's pretty cool. In the original dark green suntour box with all the marketing a brand new RD, FD, Chain, Freewheel, and Shifters, all never installed. I definitely was at the right place at the time due to the pricing of those parts used individually. Bolted right on to the bike and I have spare parts for years!

Actually had to do a bit of maintenance because the shipping/manufacturing oil had dried up a little bit from it sitting for so long.