Is this mech really dual pull? Cable routing advice needed!

jehosophat

On the back it says "FD M961" and sticker says "HS - DD". I bought it off Ebay as a "dual pull" conventional swing mech because on the hardtail and the Blur I run top swing mechs when I don't have to - because I got into the habit of them from the Superlight (which needs them). People reckon conventional shifts better, lasts longer, and clogs with mud less so I thought I'd try it.

Only problem is, I can't work out where the cable should go for top pull. You can run it straight from the top to the clamp "A" but the cable is at a serious angle then, nothing like down the centre of the seat tube like usual. Bottom pull is fine - the cable comes up from the bottom past B (nice and central) then across to the clamp.

Ideas? I am used to M950-2 where the stuff was top pull or bottom pull only. The shimano manual has a couple of tiny pics but I can't see what is going on in them...

mister p

Yes it is dual pull. You can find the fitting instructions for it here -

http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/techd ... 607882.pdf

vmgscot

Yes, straight to pos A for top pull and the cable does look angled.
In my experience, on some frames, the cable stop on the seat tube is welded/aligned for this 'strange' angle but other (older?) frames it is not and still works but cable exits the cable stop at a poor looking angle.

jehosophat

Thanks, and thanks for the link - I have all those docs but the pics were a little chocolate teapot for this! They seemed to show it coming across at an angle but that does not show how awful it looks when you can see it all the way up to the housing on the seat tube. It looks gash. Think I'll stick to the dedicated ones...

I have an M970 waiting to go on whatever frame I finally go for this year - hopefully, being a new frame, the cable runs will expect this angle if it is top pull...

mister p

Shimano haven't made dedicated pull mechs for quite a few years, they are all dual pull. It made my life a lot easier when they decided to do that because it reduced the amount of part numbers I needed to know.

The Rookie

The offset of cable pont from the centre of the seat tube is a function of the geo of the mech, the cable angle is a more a function of where the cable stop is on the frame.

Simon