Worn STIs?

craker
craker Posts: 1,739
edited March 2014 in Workshop
My rear shifter doesn't index too well, it has symptoms like 'click down - change down, click up, nothing, click up again, shift up'. Ten year old Tiagra 9 speed. I've always put this down to sticky cables, now I'm suspecting worn ratchets.

Anyone concur?

Comments

  • sebo900
    sebo900 Posts: 14
    Hi I recently had a similar problem with my 8 year old tiagra on the winter bike and had no idea what was wrong after checking everything turned out the rear mech itself had worn where it bolts to the drop out meaning that there was play in the mech so it would essentially change its indexing by moving around grab it by the bottom of the cage and move it side to side and see it moves I replaced my mech and it now indexes perfectly with the same cables/cassette etc so it was the mech for sure

    Hope this helps you narrow down the issue
  • dgunthor
    dgunthor Posts: 644
    cable tension issue? - quarter turn anti-clockwise twist of the barrel adjuster on the rear mech and try again, might need two or three turns

    when did you last replace the gear inner and outer cables?
    worn chain?
    worn jockey wheels?

    plenty of things to consider before worn STI units I think
  • gozzy
    gozzy Posts: 640
    Is your mech clean and lubed?
  • darkhairedlord
    darkhairedlord Posts: 7,180
    If it's not the cables it could be down to hardening of the grease in the shifter mechanism. If the shifters are old and they have given a good life it could just be time to retire them. If you factor the cost of a new 105 groupset and divide by perhaps five (years) it works out to £60 a year (or £5 a month). In the grand scheme of cycling expenditure probably the cheapest thing you'll buy and most bang for your bucks.
  • dgunthor
    dgunthor Posts: 644
    could always squirt some WD40 / solvent / etc into the shifter then to clean out then regrease with motorcycle chain lube or similar grease (just done this on my 10 yr old dura ace 7800 STIs as the down click wasn't always working)
  • andy_wrx
    andy_wrx Posts: 3,396
    OP - I had some worn Ultegra 6510 9sp shifters and they were just sloppy, the levers waggled about, so if yours still click crisply and there's not lots of play in the levers, I'd say cables

    Look at the cable guide under the BB and particularly that loop of cable at the rear mech

    Also check that the inner is not splitting and fraying where the noddle/plum fits inside the STI
  • craker
    craker Posts: 1,739
    dgunthor wrote:
    could always squirt some WD40 / solvent / etc into the shifter then to clean out then regrease with motorcycle chain lube or similar grease

    Whereabouts does one lubricate? Or is it a case of a thin enough grease to find its way into the mechanism. In ten years of ownership I've not had to do a single bit of maintenance on them.
  • dgunthor
    dgunthor Posts: 644
    think it needs to be thick ish - hence the motorbike stuff. on mine there wasn't much access to the sti mechanism so i just blasted some in where i could - what's the worst that could happen?

Categories