Deore brake lever fix

Teds21

Evening, I've somehow managed to separate the brake lever from the hydraulic cylinder on my 2014(?) deore brakes. I guess the ball needs to be reseated in the cup, and the surclip pushed into the recess to hold it together, but I've absolutely no idea how to go about doing this, can anyone advise?

nicklouse

If you have ripped the C clip out you might not have anything to fit it in to. Also it keros the piston in place so don't be suprised if the bits come flying out.

Mister_g

Ha! I had the same happen to me near the top of Snowdon! - It's really difficult. What model are they?

The ball just sits in a cup on the end of the plunger in the brake master cylinder as far as I can tell. It doesn't click into place, or anything.

Check carefully in case the brake lever pivots are removeable (mine weren't - the pivots were just peened over). If you can remove the lever(*), it's fairly easy: remove the lever itself, unscrew the push-rod from the lever and push the ball end into the brake cylinder, forcing it against the return spring. While you're holding it there, fit the washer and circlip and then screw the pushrod back into the lever and re-fit the lever pivot.

If you can't remove the lever, you can partially unscrew the reach adjuster to give yourself more room to work, but I'd be surprised if you can get a circlip pliers in there while the lever is in place. If you can, it's the best way to go. If you unscrew the pushrod completely, it gives you the best chance of being able to refit the circlip BUT with mine it was (almost) impossible to get the pushrod back into the thread on the lever as there wasn't enough room to get the thread started. Yours might be different, so you might be OK - or maybe you can open the bleed nipple at the caliper so that the push rod can move through its full travel (I wouldn't bank on it - I pushed the caliper pistons back to get as much level travel as I could, but still had to resort to a bit of brute force (& almost to tears, as it was so frustrating) to get the pushrod back into the thread on the lever). You can check how hard this is going to be before you go to the trouble of re-seating the circlip and decide if it's worth £18.99.

I can tell you that faced with a 900m descent with only one brake, that I'd have paid £18.99 several times over rather than repeatedly trying and failing to get that bloody circlip back in with a multi-tool and a penknife!

If you do get it back together, check that the circlip is secure and that it's groove hasn't been damaged.

Good luck.

(*) Lever = the part that you actually pull, not the whole brake lever assembly with the reservior, etc..

Teds21

Mister g, great response, thanks a lot, just reading about how to fix it has convinced me to buy a new lever assembly, it sounds like a pretty painful fix otherwise