Bicycle Mechanics - Stuck cable - chainstay

One of my frames (90'ies steel racer) has the cable for the RD going through the chainstay (just the cable, not the hose). The cable has snapped off and there is no way I can get it out. The cable is almost entirely inside the frame now, ony a few frays stick out one one side.
Anyone has some tips?
Thanks!

Has it snapped at both ends?
Stand bike upright, plug the lower end with the sticky, semi-permanent substance of your choice (hot glue, chewing gum, caulk, silicone, wax...) then fill chainstay with the penetrating oil of your choice (there are plenty of threads about which ones here), then leave to soak for as long your patience lets you. When patience fails, try pulling at the threads again.
If this is a no go, there are quite nice (chromed?, Nickel plated?) wraparound cable stops that can be bought and retrofitted for external routing.

Thanks dabas, will try the first option, soak it then try to blow it out with a compressor.
It snapped when trying to pull the cable out so on one side it went into the small pipe while it broke of at the other side. There is next to nothing to hold on to.

If you can't get it out, buy a couple cable stops and run the new cable outside the chainstay instead.

Could you use a spoke to push the cable back out? I would get some oil fully through there first.

With luck, you might then be able to pull strands back out one at a time.

.. Chainstay tube is open to the BB shell..
pull the crank and BB. :innocent:
then access is from the big end.

dddd: the channel is too curved to push a spoke in.
fietsbob: I will check but I don't think you can access the cable from inside the chainstay. There is another tiny tube inside through which the cable goes.

is it just the cable, or cable and housing?

I assume that the cable is somewhat forcefully bunched up inside the tube?
It will then take some force to pull out.

If the end of the cable could be touched by a piece of electric welding rod, perhaps then it could be pulled out.

Perhaps each end could be drilled out to the outside diameter of the metal tube, then a new tube run through.
Lined cable housings with the liner drilled out a short depth might then slip over the protruding stubs of the tube, holding it in place while eliminating the need for the tube to end flush with the bottom of the socket that the housing plugs into.

A drill bit will not cut away at the cable wires, so the object would be to just free the ends of the metal tube from the frame so it could be removed from the chainstay.
Perhaps a length of plastic cable "housing liner" tubing could substitute for metal tubing and might be easier to source.
One end of a new metal tube could also be secured internally in the chainstay with epoxy, so it wouldn't need to protrude at all in order to stay secured in place.

JReade: it's just a cable.
It's a quite nice frame, so I will try the non-destructive methods first. Thanks for your input so far, will post back.

Is this a Trek frame? I had a late '80's Trek 560 with the same cable through the ds chainstay routing. I never had problems with it but it was a silly idea.

I will check but I don't think you can access the cable from inside the chainstay.

how else would it go thru the chainstay? anyhow a BB overhaul
cleaning, adding fresh grease
and such, may be overdue, so no loss in looking.. .

how else would it go thru the chainstay? anyhow a BB overhaul
cleaning, adding fresh grease
and such, may be overdue, so no loss in looking.. .

Some internal routing has a secondary tube inside the actual stay/top tube/whatever.

Is this a Trek frame? I had a late '80's Trek 560 with the same cable through the ds chainstay routing. I never had problems with it but it was a silly idea.

It was the Marketing Department's idea. :innocent: