Bicycle Mechanics - Help! Shifter won't budge!

Help! My left Shimano 105 shifter stopped functioning suddenly. The large lever clicks, but doesn't move the cable. The small lever moves a bit but won't click or move the cable. When I look into the shifter housing, the end of the cable is way in the outside position (totally visible rather than way back inside).

It worked fine yesterday. Today, I changed my chainrings, chain, and cassette. When the installation was complete, I was ready to adjust the high-low settings and the cable tension, the left shifter just wouldn't work. The gears changed easily by pulling the wire, but the shifter won't do it.

Any ideas of what happened and what I can do to fix it?

Thanks.

Rich

Are you sure that the cable is not broken? It sure sounds like the head of the cable is broken off or is breaking off.

Sounds like the cables came loose from the fasteners that hold them to the derailures.

Put the levers in the lowest gear position and manually move the chain to the smallest chainrings

Loosen the fasteners.

Wipe the cables clean to make sure there is no grease on them.

Use a plyers to pull the cable snug.

Tighten the fasteners again. Make sure the fasteners are tight.

That should do it.

You mean you can go down gears (big lever), but not up gears (small lever) ?

That has happened to a bike I have. If you take apart the shifter, you can see that spring that holds down the ratchet into the pawl is weak and won't hold it into position.

Someone on an earlier thread said to use degreaser to unclag the spring.
I think you might have to replace that spring, I don't know if you can get that part, though (I haven't fixed mine yet).

No home remedies worked. I took my bike to a shop today. My shifter was pronounced DOA. Because it's Shimano, it's really not repairable.

I went home and called Nashbar and had them overnight me a new set (can't just buy the left one). I hope to have it installed for the warm weekend that's predicted around here.

Seeing how expensive it is to replace a Shimano shifter, I am going to giver serious consideration to getting Campy components--they can be repaired--on my next bike.

Rich

The only possible resolution, is to ****** the think with solvent! I've taken some abused bikes with stuck shifters and a can of PB Blaster and got them working again. ****** with PB blaster, let it sit for awhile, ****** again, and again for some time. If the shifter is resurrected, then spray down with a degreaser or cleanser, and apply some lube. I use some finish line, or some tri-tech.

If this doesn't work, you shifter is worn out! Those things don't last forever!
L8R