internal cabling....how?

bgrass
bgrass Posts: 7
edited July 2011 in Workshop
My bike has internal brake cable routing on the top tube. Due to changing bars to ones with internal cable routing i've pulled the cable out of the frame. Now, how on earth do I push the cable back through? Is there some special trick to it? Just spent the last hour trying to get it through the hole and i'm starting to tear my hair out and swear rather a lot.

Comments

  • mrdsgs
    mrdsgs Posts: 337
    a bit late, but what you should have done is attach the cable to some thread or wire before removing so that you pulled the thread/wire through the internal route and then you use that to pull the brake cable inner back through.

    lots of possible ways to do it now but basically you fiddle with wire or thread until you manage it, i've heard of thread and a vacuum cleaner to suck it back out!
    Colnago Addict!
  • mrdsgs
    mrdsgs Posts: 337
    a bit late, but what you should have done is attach the cable to some thread or wire before removing so that you pulled the thread/wire through the internal route and then you use that to pull the brake cable inner back through.

    lots of possible ways to do it now but basically you fiddle with wire or thread until you manage it, i've heard of thread and a vacuum cleaner to suck it back out!
    Colnago Addict!
  • Rodrego Hernandez
    Rodrego Hernandez Posts: 1,436
    thin cotton thread through one end and a vacuum cleaner at the other end
  • Tom Butcher
    Tom Butcher Posts: 3,830
    I did it using by using a piece of wire to make a hook and with someone shining a torch into the hole using that to hook the cable towards the hole as I pushed it through.
    it's a hard life if you don't weaken.
  • pilot_pete
    pilot_pete Posts: 2,120
    Just come up with the same problem. The internal routeing holes on my frame are barely bigger than the brake internal cable! I had tried the vaccuum cleaner and cotton, but after half an hour of trying I just could not get the loose end of cotton to come out of the very small hole!

    My solution was to strip down a piece of electrical earth cable and then separate the strands to get one length of copper wire, which I inserted at one end and managed to manoeuvre out through the other hole.

    To this I tied a length of cotton which I then pulled back through. The other end of the cotton was then tied to the brake cable and then the whole lot pulled back through carefully.

    Fiddly, but worked.

    PP
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    I'm so glad all my cables are on the outside where I can get at them!
  • wheelygood
    wheelygood Posts: 101
    Leave old outer in place - thread new inner. Then remove old outer and use new inner, now in place, as guide for new outer! Simples!!!
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    Do all the internal cables employ inners and outers??
  • stokey1964
    stokey1964 Posts: 454
    keef66 wrote:
    Do all the internal cables employ inners and outers??


    Not all
    My Super Leonardo's rear brake cable uses special stops in the frame and a standard inner.

    It did come supplied with a nylon guide sticking out both ends to make trhreading the inner nice and easy.

    Simon
  • pilot_pete
    pilot_pete Posts: 2,120
    wheelygood wrote:
    Leave old outer in place - thread new inner. Then remove old outer and use new inner, now in place, as guide for new outer! Simples!!!

    Not quite....Rear brake outer on mine is in two parts, one from the lever to the top tube just behind the head tube. At that point it terminates as the inner enters the top tube guide hole. The second part emerges towards the rear of the top tube where the inner comes back out through a guide hole and then it is just a short piece of outer to the rear brake. So the inner enters the frame and then re-emerges later on, with no outer entering the frame.

    Next time I will remember to tie a long piece of cotton to the old inner before pulling it out....!

    PP

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