Bicycle Mechanics - Is my bar end shifter toast?

I have a Dura Ace bar end shifter 9 speed. I usually use it in friction mode. I was having problems with it slipping somewhere in the mid range of my cassette. So I decided to put in a new cable tonight.

Well I put it into index mode and first 3-4 gears clicked up and in smoothly. But somewhere between 4-6, I seemed to lose the click. 7-9 click came back. By the way, tension seemed good, chain would drop into smaller cogs, no problem.

Are my indents, or whatever they are called, worn out?

I just rode around in friction and the ghost shift came back. I am sure I was in the 4-6 range.


edit: Just tried the shifter without cable tension. Nice clicks 1-3 and 7-9. In the 4-6 range the shifter is silence.

Did anything change besides the new cable? I imagine somewhere along the way you got things back differently than when you started, else the problem was there all along. If you removed the shifters did they go back with all the little parts in the right place? I know that on mine there is an orientation for the little things that must be carefully observed.

I think I put everything back together correctly. I bought the bike used about 8 months ago. I guess I could have had a problem starting then and just didn't notice it. I gave up trying to get the cable tension just right, back then, so I kept running it in friction mode.

Why don't you open it up and have a look inside?

I've had similar problems with my bar-ends and they were usually my fault. If you don't get the pieces lined up properly, things like this will happen. Take it apart and examine all the pieces carefully. It's a little like a jigsaw puzzle. There are different ways to put them together but only one that's right. Check how the raised sections on one piece fit into the indentations on the adjacent piece. With a little fiddling, I've always gotten my bar-ends assembled correctly eventually.

+2.

When I first got my bar-end shifter equipped bike the shifters did not work properly... either not having enough clicks or not having a full range - I don't recall. But after disassembling and trying a few orientatons I had a shifter that had the right number of clicks and a full sweep. It may be possible that your shifter is ruined, but more likely that it is assembled wrong.

Also make sure that your index/friction selector is turned all the way to the 'index' position - if it is only turned part way you will have weird indexing problems.

from my experience with barcons, you need to shift them all the way to the highest gear before taking them off, so that when you reassemble, the proper gear is lined up and you dont get click click click fantom click. What you can do is put the barcon together, shift to the highest gear possible, pull off the lever and reposition to the low gear, reassemble and shift back to high gear.

Hope that helps.

It could be a worn indexing disc (or whatever does the indexing). My old Dura-Ace 6-speed down-tube shifter (20+ years old) has been behaving as you describe for about 5 years now. I keep it in indexed anyway but every now and then it slips a gear. I have yet to actually try to open it up to see if anything is repairable.

This post answered my question and all is good!!! Bye Bye friction mode, hello indexing!! (at least for this next ride..)
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=503135