Stuck Tiagra shifter

TGD

I broke a rear gear cable yesterday. I just pulled out the cable and came home in the small ring at the back.

However, when I tried to fit a new cable, I can't get the shifter to return to 'neutral' (equivalent to small ring at rear). It will just do one 'click' up/down.

I've doused it with WD40 etc, but no move.

Is there something I am missing or is it goosed?

cython

Did it break at the shifter or mech end? If the former did you get the cable head out too?

TGD

cython wrote: »

Did it break at the shifter or mech end? If the former did you get the cable head out too?

Broke fairly far down. The cable came out clean

iwillhtfu

Did you ratchet/shift the shifter down before you installed the cable? It needs to have tension applied on the cable. I'm probably not explaining that very well but I had similar happen before.

Mefistofelino

Is the rubber hood still pulled up out of the way for access? If so, it blocks lever movement.

triggermortis

Try taking the cable out again and seeing if the shifter works properly with no cable fitted. If it does, refit the cable but check that you have the correct routing before you refit the cable fully.
Once you have the cable as far as the first break in the outer, make sure it still shifts - if you pull slightly on the cable you should feel it pull in or out slightly with each shift click.
When you get the cable all the way to the rear mech, check it still works for each click, and remember to set it for the smallest cog before you tighten the cable clamp (or maybe up one if you watch GCN).
If the shifter isn't shifting properly with no cable fitted, there may be dirt or a part of a cable still in there so you'd need to look for that, but usually installing a new cable pushes foreign objects out of the way.

TGD

iwillhtfu wrote: »

Did you ratchet/shift the shifter down before you installed the cable? It needs to have tension applied on the cable. I'm probably not explaining that very well but I had similar happen before.

It won't rachet down - that's the problem - so I can't install the cable (well, I can, but it won't engage because the thingy that the end of cable should engage with isn't appearing).

TGD

Mefistofelino wrote: »

Is the rubber hood still pulled up out of the way for access? If so, it blocks lever movement.

Yes, I've tried it each way - rubber retracted and fully down. The little lever underneath, which the 'big lever' pushes, is quite free.

TGD

triggermortis wrote: »

Try taking the cable out again and seeing if the shifter works properly with no cable fitted. If it does, refit the cable but check that you have the correct routing before you refit the cable fully.
Once you have the cable as far as the first break in the outer, make sure it still shifts - if you pull slightly on the cable you should feel it pull in or out slightly with each shift click.
When you get the cable all the way to the rear mech, check it still works for each click, and remember to set it for the smallest cog before you tighten the cable clamp (or maybe up one if you watch GCN).
If the shifter isn't shifting properly with no cable fitted, there may be dirt or a part of a cable still in there so you'd need to look for that, but usually installing a new cable pushes foreign objects out of the way.

It won't work with no cable fitted - just one click either way. It seems to be stuck in a 'low' gear - i.e. there is no sign of the bit that the end of the cable should engage with if it was clicked back to 'neutral' (small ring).

iwillhtfu

TGD wrote: »

It won't rachet down - that's the problem - so I can't install the cable (well, I can, but it won't engage because the thingy that the end of cable should engage with isn't appearing).

I assume you've tried shifting it up the way and see if it appears. Can you feed the cable through at all? You could get a small screw driver I there and encourage the cylinder around as you shift. It wouldn't require much pressure more friction than anything.

triggermortis

It sounds like there is something stuck in there. Try pushing the new cable in from both directions (gently) and see if anything frees up. Also try this with and without any pressure on the shifter (again gentle..) to see if you can get more movement. The ratchet only moves a small amount so gentle pressure the right way will move the ratchet away from what's in there

Cee-Jay-Cee

It difficult to figure out if you are doing it correct or not so I'll describe the process again...put the cable into the shifter and pull it through on the other side of the shifter at the bars, don't worry about feeding it through the outer cable yet. Once fed through the shifter pull on the cable and click the lever to go up/down through the gears. There has to be tension on the cable to get the shifter to go through the gears.

TGD

Thanks guys.

It transpired that it had broken in the shifter after all, and a short lenght was stuck in there, at the 'bottom' of the pulley.

The frayed ends stopped it clicking back. I forced it back, using a small screwdriver against little 'cogs' in the shifter pulley.

That did give me a chance to get at the frayed ends and pull them out as in the pic below.

I snipped off what I could of these, and then tucked it back in again so as it had to get around another good bit, in order to get the end out (there is no way of getting it out from it's position on the pic).

triggermortis

Glad you sorted it