Mountain Biking - Help: Front derailleur wont adjust properly.

Hi, i went to ride my mountain bike this afternoon and as i wheeled it out it made a horrible grinding sound. The front derailleur was well out of place and now im having trouble getting it back where it was. I have checked front derailleur adjustment page from parktool website and it seems simple enough but when i try to lower the hight of the cage so that it is 1mm clearence from the chainring it pulls itself to the inner side of the outer chainring. I dont know if it is damdged or not.

To adjust a front derailleur you will have to play with the shifter a little. Where the cable goes in to the shifter there is a barrel that the cable housing fits in to. You have to rotate this barrel both directions until you start seeing the results you desire, then keep turning in that direction until satisfactory. Be careful not to rotate it to much then the barrel will come out of the shifter and you will have to screw it back in a thred or two.

If this still doesn't help try loosening the cable at the derailleur and pulling it tighter and reclamping. If the bike or cable is new it probably has strecthed and that should fix your problem.

I'd make sure everything looks straight...I had a FD that I couldn't adjust properly to prevent rubbing in the middle ring. I adjusted/cussed for a long time, then finally looked at it only to realize that the cage of the derailleur was not straight, apparently from a wreck. If it is in fact straight and has no play, make sure the cage is as parallel as possible to the chainline...if it's off far there will tend to be a lot of rubbing.