Sora front derailleur

sagefly

Hi guys,

My Sora front derailleur has stopped shifting from the smalll ring to the large ring.

The derailleur move but doesnt not make contact with the chain.

I've adjusted the barrell adjuster coming out of the shifter and this doesnt give enough movement to make the chain touch the derailleur.

Nothing seems bent or twisted with the mechanism so I'm at a loss to figure why suddenlt it wont shift.

If I poke, adjust and fiddle with it enough can I get lucky enough to fix it or, can i do enough damage to really cost myself some money.

Any answers really appreciated

laurentian

I am far from an expert here and will take any correcting but, I had a similar problem a while ago.

Have you tried pulling the exposed cable by hand (ie don't use your shifter, literally just pull the cable) to see if it makes contact with the chain and pushes it over? (you may need to put the bike on a stand or table to do this).

If this works, it just means that your cable is not tight enough, you need to unscrew the clamp screw that holds the cable to the mechanism, pull some cable through and then re-tighten. If you're doing this, you need to turn your barrel adjuster back to where it was first to allow for some fine adjustment afterwards

John Clark1

Yup - if the cable is slack then barrel adjuster back to original position, undo clamp bolt, pull up slack, redo clamp bolt.

You also have two screws on the mech - one moves it up and down, one in and out.

With the cable slack (ie chain on small ring) and using a good Philips s/driver move the cage in and out until it shifts the chain as you want it.

Run it through the gears to make sure that there is no chain rub throughout the whole range (yes, I know about not using the big ring on the front if you're in the small ring on the back but this is the real world we are talking about): if necessary move the cage backwards and forwards using the screw until all is well.

HTH

Ernest

mattv

If its suddenly gone from functional to really far out almost instantly I would expect the mech to have slipped down the frame. Chances are if you pull the cable tight it won't clear the teeth on the chainring.

sagefly

Thanks for the replies.

It hasn't slipped it still clears the front big ring nicely, it just doesnt hit the chain.

Like the post above I've also had the left hand shift lock solid and not change down from the big ring, I might take apart the shifter and see, what could really go wrong.............................................

I'll give it all a try tonight, I was worried more about breaking the mechanism beyond repair. But it seems I can put it down to a learning experience as they say!

Thanks once again for the help I'll let you know how I get on.

keef66

I wouldn't try dismantling the shifter unless you're confident in your watchmaking ability. Small parts and things that go ping lurk within.

Might be worth detaching the cable from the mech and then while squeezing the brake lever, try to push it back through the shifter. There's a possibility that the cable's fraying or the nipple isn't properly seated.

And while the cable's detached, check that the front mech is free to move as far as it should by hand. (I once had a mech which had a sizeable stone lodged in the parallellogram so it wouldn't move very far)

mattv

Another thing to check is the outer housing. Sometimes this fails and the strands inside poke through the plastic end caps. This has the effect of shortening the outer, or lengthening the inner. Like your problem.

sagefly

Guys thank for all your replies. I've slackened the cable tightened the cable and no change.

I think at my level of experience its a bike shop job.

Cheers