Sticky rear derailleur solved with boiling water.

jonathan2

Hi all. Despite cleaning and lashings of wd40, my old derailleur was sticking (it seemed that the return spring had lost its power). As one last attempt to solve the issue I thought that salt (I use the bike every day in all weathers) from the roads may had caused the issue by seizing up the spring. Hoping that boiling water would dissolve the salt I soaked the derailleur in boiling water and hey presto the mech is 99% sorted. Anyone else had similar problems and put it down to salt?

sungod

i wouldn't let wd40 anywhere near a bike, over time the solvents will displace heavier lubricants, leaving only the light oil from the wd40, which is a poor substitute

if the pivot was binding i think it's more likely that the grease has been flushed out and it's become bunged up with dirt, soaking in water has removed the dirt/gunk allowing it to move freely, but as it stands there's probably no lube left in it now, i'd strip it down and regrease

on-yer-bike

Is it straight forward opening up the the jockey cage spring housing on a Campag 11 speed Athena and Record pre 2015? Should it be packed with grease in there?

Bobbinogs

I would be a tad cautious! The last time I had a go at stripping a derailleur I heard a ping and saw some spring type thing fly out and I never did get the derailleur working again (the bit that flew out was obviously there for a reason) :-)

Matthewfalle

Personally I just hose the thing down at the end of each salty/horrible ride - 15 seconds with a hose and never had problem such as the above detailed aforementioned.

sungod

on-yer-bike wrote:

Is it straight forward opening up the the jockey cage spring housing on a Campag 11 speed Athena and Record pre 2015? Should it be packed with grease in there?

i've only done sram and shimano ones, for a specific model check the spares manual on the campag website and see what it shows, they're usually simple things, split ring or circlip retaining the b axle, which just slides into the body

http://www.campagnolo.com/UK/en/Support/download?td=3

there's plenty here on servicing...

http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-hel ... -section-4

...note the page has a typo at the moment, says sram instead of campagnolo

veronese68

Bobbinogs wrote:

the bit that flew out was obviously there for a reason

Wise words that can be applied to so many things. Not that I have ever experienced such things of course. :oops: