Ultegra front gear changer issue

skinnydog

Hi. Thanks for reading.

My Ultegra 6700 front mech shifter keeps sticking. When in the small ring and pushing the lever in to change onto the big ring, the "spring" ? doesnt seem to push /pull the shifter arm back to its normal position. It remains pushed in and i have to manually pull it back. I have tried flushing it with wd40 /gt85 but no joy.

Any advice appreciated.

Matthewfalle

Have you checked for cable fray/gunning? Try slapping a new cable n and see what happens.

Also check the spring on the mech itself and clean that.

Finally, the little return spring inside the shifter may be shot, so either replace or just flick it back with your finger.

svetty

Probably cable - does the lever work normally when the cable is removed from it? Assuming it does, replace with a new one (inner and housing). If no better when cable disconnected then may need surgery to springs (? cheaper to get 2nd hand shifter on ebay)

Cygnus

Likely to be a frayed cable, check the cable inside the brake lever housing,that's where it usually starts to fray. Also if it has frayed there then you'll want to change the cable as soon as possible or at least undo it otherwise if it snaps inside the brake lever housing it becomes virtually impossible to get out.

skinnydog

Thanks for advice gents, appreciate it.

CiB

The l/h shifters have a reputation for failing. Mine has; it still works but doesn't give a smooth change more of an all or nothing clunk. It's on the spare bike so not really an issue, but failure isn't unknown.

Bobbinogs

Yepp, I would take the cable out completely and then try the shifter (it should smoothly shift right and then spring back into the major position and the trim mid-point). Then manually push the mech across and see if it springs back cleanly. If both of those are fine then it is probably* the cable in some way (either kinked, frayed or in need of cleaning). I had a LH shifter fail and that was how I worked out the one component at fault out of the three elements in the system.

*Note, it could still be the shifter not working under load but that is a more unlikely scenario than just simple failure of one of the 3 elements.

Cygnus

skinnydog, does the lever still click when you try to push it in to chain to the big chainwheel? If it does then it means the lever isn't taking up the slack in the cable which would suggest a frayed cable. If there's no click then it's a problem with the lever mechanism.