Gear Cable Adjusters
My gear cable barrel adjusters are causing me some trouble to say the least. I've got a Triban 3 and the adjusters were completely non functional. I took the load off the levers and took it apart and without any load on it, it worked as it should. I then connected the cable back up to the (front) deraillieur and whenever it has load on it it just doesn't work at all. I presumed the adjusters must be non functional ( the rear cable does the same) so had a look to see if there was an exact replacement part. Can't seem to find a replacement but can find aftermarket looking alternatives. How easy would it be to add these? Am I better just replacing the whole cable?
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Try using the adjusters with no load on, they should work fine, then shift back to put the load on. Half turn at a time. Check and see, release/adjust again/reload if necessary. Takes a few minutes but once set they should be good for a while.
I find that unscrewing the adjusters a couple of turns before setting the cable pinch works well as that way you can use the inline adjusters either way.0 -
yeah i tried just setting them a tiny bit then re adjusting but then even when in lowest gear with technically no load there is still some load on the cable therefore the adjusters don't work. i think they're shot. will order some new ones i've seen that should just be a direct replacement.0
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Have you greased the threads of the adjusters?I've added a signature to prove it is still possible.0
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Woah back up a bit. What do you mean 'don't work'? You can't turn them or they don't adjust the derailleur position?- - - - - - - - - -
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I try to avoid in-line cable adjusters when I can as I find that if adjusted when on a high load (high gear position) the tension causes the cable-ends to fray giving in time, giving faulty changes.
I now make it a rule to engage a low gear before adjusting.0 -
r_mutt wrote:yeah i tried just setting them a tiny bit then re adjusting but then even when in lowest gear with technically no load there is still some load on the cable therefore the adjusters don't work. i think they're shot. will order some new ones i've seen that should just be a direct replacement.
in the lowest cog\chain rings the cable adjusters do nothing, and you should be looking at adjustment to the cable tention itself and the limit screws on the mech's. The adjusters are really for triming the middle cogs and not the extremes.0 -
What I mean by the 'don''t work' is that when under any sort of load, even just the cable pulled tight, that when turned they don't adjust the cable tension. When I have undone any tension on the cable and took them apart and back together, you can see them working when turned by the metal inner progressively moving outwards when turned. They still turn when under tension but no movement of the metal inner outward and no increased tension in cable.
I tried the suggestion of putting grease on the internally housed thread and this did seem to make them tighter to turn as if they had caught the thread but still nothing.
I have adjusted the derailleur without them now anyway and have succesfully got full movement to all chainrings. So I probably didn't need to worry too much in the first place. And to answer the question about if they worked when on the larger chainrings, they turned but still no adjustment
Thanks for all the advice as I'm a real beginner at this but have a habit of jumping in and learning as I go :shock:0 -
As above though, the idea is not to turn them under tension but release the tension, turn by half a turn, reapply tension and see if the adjustment worked. I did this only the other night to get the front mech set perfectly.
Brake adjusters also work better when the quick release is used to take some of the strain off.0 -
(I'm assuming the issue is with inline adjusters - not ones that fit into frame bosses)?
With some designs of barrel-adjusters, for the inner piece of the adjuster to extend in or out, it has to not turn when the adjuster-barrel is turned - otherwise it just spins with the barrel and goes nowhere.
For this internal piece to not turn with the barrel, the cable outer entering it has to 'grip' it somewhat. It may be that the cable outer is not fat enough to 'stick' against this internal piece (need to think of something to call this - how about screw-ferrule?). Maybe it's been lubricated and it's slipping?
I recently cabled up an internally routed bike with adjusters on both rear brake and gears (needed on the brake cable as it's a canti brake and the rear cable stop can't hold an adjuster). Anyway - the adjusters were identical for both brakes and gears - but as the gear outers are narrower, they needed standard ferrules on the end of the gear outer, so that these would 'grip' the screw-ferrule.
Maybe you just need to experiment with different ferrules (regular plastic or posher metal Campag or Shimano ones which are a smidge wider).0 -
ok step away from the adjusters for the moment, what is the issue you have that's making you play about with them?
Both front and rear mech's will have two limit screws on them which set the range of travel of the mech, this is the first check. Secondly, if you have the tention set correctly then the gear levers should then allow all cogs to be selected. You need to keep going over these two steps until both top and bottom cogs can be selected without dropping the chain.
The adjusters then perform the fine adjustment for the central cogs, which might not fully engage when changing gear.0
