It was a good idea after all…

Way back in April I tried to fix a 9-speed Dura Ace STI shifter. Didn’t work as there was a crucial part that was damaged and the cause of the shifting problem. When I was trying to fix that one, I also took apart one of mine to have a side-by-side comparison of just how it worked. Since April, mine has sat in a baggie completely disassembled. Yesterday, I had some down time so I thought I’d put it back together. After refreshing my memory on how it all went together, I finally got it together and, whew, it works like a champ! Who says you can’t rebuild Shimano shifters. Well, I guess this was a case of re-assembly, not necessarily rebuilding.

Sorting out the pieces.

As chance would have it, I had someone come in today with a 9-speed Dura Ace STI shifter that was not functioning. The cable had broken off inside it and in the process of fishing the broken head out, the ratchet barrel (the guts) had gone past the #9 position and had jammed. In addition, the return spring that’s located under the front cap wasn’t reinstalled correctly. After getting the return spring installed, I tore into the back removing the return shift lever to get at the internals. There is a little knob on the ratchet mechanism that gets bumped by the release lever’s movement that releases the cable. This guy was basically stuck. With a machinist’s pick, I coaxed it to release and then released it back to ground zero. Got the release lever mounted (which is a PITA because there is a tiny return spring that has to be sprung in place to the lever blade). Finished buttoning up all the other parts and returned this STI lever back into service. Maybe he’ll get another 15 years life out of it. Could happen.