Barrel Adjuster stuck in frame.

JesseD

Stripped my Felt Z75 on Tuesday to clean and rebuild with new cables, re-grease everything so I could get it ready to sell so I can start building a TT bike, everything is stripped down apart from one of the barrel adjusters on the down tube is stuck and won't turn.

I have tried using GT-85 and WD-40 on it and letting it soak through hoping that it would release the thread on the barrel adjuster but to no avail.

Anyone tell me how the hell I can get it out without damaging the frameset?

I have new ones to put in but can't obviously do this until the old ones are out!

Thanks

JD

Bobbinogs

Someone may suggest Plusgas but I have yet to find that it actually works on anything! I bought it specifically help with this kind of issue but been fairly disappointed with it despite several ideal opportunities for it to repay my blind faith in it. If the BA is cross threaded, which it could be, then nothing is really going to help. May need to be drilled out and/or retapped or simply left (albeit unusable). No big deal for the RD but a real PITA for the FD.

bbrap

I find pipe grips (known as waterpump pliers) get a good grip and allow a fair amount of torque to be applied (assuming the plastic bit of the barrel is still intact). If you are left with just the threaded bit careful use of an easyout (left hand thread stud remover) might do the trick. If that fails it is very careful use of a drill (flex shaft works best as it will get close to the frame) to take out the BA, if you are careful with the drill size you may just be able to clean up the internal thread with the correct size tap. Drilling oversize/tapping and fitting an insert is normally not an option as there is not enough meat on the BA housing.

Good luck.

Matthewfalle

Just leave it in and set the mech up with it in place as it is. Its not a biggie.

If you really want to be able to fiddle then leave it in place and fit an in line adjuster.

Must admit that over all the years I've been building bikes for myself and other people I've never had to mess around with adjusting one.

JesseD

I thought about leaving it in place as its for the rear mech and there is obviously a barrel adjuster on the mech itself, the barrel adjuster on the down tube for the front mech is working fine.

The only reason i wanted to get it out and put a new one in there is because I am looking to sell the bike and it will look better.

imafatman

Cool the barrel adjuster with a can of compressed air, turn it upside down and spray it on the barrel.

Keep the frame wraped in a rag.

onionmk

I say this from (bad) experience.. Leave it in! I tried to remove both on my frame and just ended up sheering off the bolt heads. It took me two days to file out the stuck bolts using a wire saw and a jewellers file. I then had to use a clean m6 bolt and gt85 to chase what was left of the threads. They work fine now but I wouldn't say it was worth the hassle and the risk. +1 It would be much easier to leave it and use the barrel on the rear derailleur.

shaw8670

Or if it is for the left one,leave it in and use an inline barrel adjuster for the front mech cable as it doesn't have a barrel adjuster. Total cost about £2.

Matthewfalle

shaw8670 wrote:

Or if it is for the left one,leave it in and use an inline barrel adjuster for the front mech cable as it doesn't have a barrel adjuster. Total cost about £2.

It's the right one - see above.

You don't even need to that though - cable through, set up mech, job jobbed.

svetty

I wouldn't be happy if I bought it without being told that the barrel adjuster was seized. If you mention it you might put potential buyers off - at best they'll beat you down on price.

If you were keeping it then I'd just leave it as it's on the R.

Matthewfalle

Svetty wrote:

I wouldn't be happy if I bought it without being told that the barrel adjuster was seized. If you mention it you might put potential buyers off - at best they'll beat you down on price.

If you were keeping it then I'd just leave it as it's on the R.

Correct.

JesseD

Thanks all, luckily the right cable is the rear mech on mine as the cables cross under the down tube (came like that)!

If I leave in I will have a working adjuster for the front mech and the adjuster on the rear mech to fine tune that.

So I suppose my question is would you be unhappy if when buying a bike it had a seized barrel adjuster in the frame if it was pointed out to you as well (would disclose as I would want to be honest)

Matthewfalle

No - so long as the advert says exactly what the score is then I know what I'm buying.

Anyone who buys the frame after being told about the barrel adjuster and then complains is an ass.

sungod

gt-85 / wd-40 are no use if it's corroded in place, acf-50 might help, but once there's other stuff soaked in it's not going to penetrate that well

what is the barrel adjuster made of? what material does it screw into? if they're different metals you can exploit this based upon their differential thermal expansion

if it's steel going into aluminium, pouring hot water on the area may ease it (you could also shoot freezer through the cable hole in the barrel at the same time but you need to work fast to apply force before the hot al is cooled by the cold steel)

if it's the other way around, use freezer spray through the barrel

absolute worst case, you can use a dremel to drill/grind out material until the walls are thin enough to break away with a pick

next time, put anti-seize on the threads

meanredspider

A few techniques I learned from an elderly Italian whilst learning to restore 60's Alfa Romeos might help:

- a sharp tap with an appropriate sized hammer (obvious no-no on a carbon frame and with due care on other frames)
- start by tightening the offending item
- as above, thermal shock might work: boiling water on one outer/female surface followed by CO2 on the other.

JesseD

Thanks all, havent had the time to have a go as of yet but will have a crack at this tonight, will tap with a hammer before pouring boiling water on the frame mount and Co2 on the adjuster, then hopefully it will budge!