Broken mech barrel inside shifter, Remedy, if a little drastic.

1964johnr
1964johnr Posts: 179
in Workshop
Second time I have managed to snap the cable in the worst possible place, inside my tiagra 4500 RH shifter. The first time it happened and no amount of trying to get it out, I set about dismantling the shifter, not an easy thing to do, and I failed, but did get to see the engineering inside the sti, which helped now that it has happened again. Once again it was stuck inside the mechanism and there was no way to click the gears and bring it back to where it could be accessed. I know that newer shifters have a little plate under the shifter which can be removed to access a stuck cable barrel, but the tiagra 4500 2008 doesn't have this built in. So, I gathered a few tools and set about drilling a small channel through the metal on the underside of the shifter along the route the shifter pawels move. Being very careful not to drill beyond the metal covering so as not to drill the mechanism inside the shifter I was able to use a magnifying glass to peer through the drilled hole to see the exact position of the stuck barrel and strands of cable. I then made the drilled hole big enough to be able to use a pick to remove the barrel through the hole which I drilled. The end result is that my shifter now works perfectly with a new cable installed, but I do have a small hole through the outer covering, which I could solder, but I am going to leave it there to give me good access to the pawels when I service the shifters.

Comments

  • masjer
    masjer Posts: 2,700
    Good fix!
    I usually replace my cable inners fairly regularly to avoid the above. Some shifters chew cables for breakfast.

Categories