Bicycle Mechanics - Shimano 105 rear Shifter Problem...PLEASE HELP!

OK, first off i was riding thursday, CAAD 8 was doing great, shifting fine, everything I wanted it to do it did. On the return however, the bike would shift up to a harder gear but to a certain point, when, with about three gears left, the shift lever became "loose". By that, i mean it didn't have the click to shift the chain to a harder gear. I could force it by pulling on the cable and then letting it drop however.

Yesterday after work, I decided to take a look at it, pulled the rubber on the hood up, and noticed that the cable was frayed inside the hood. Obviously not good.

This morning, back at work (local bike shop, however I'm new), we pulled the shifter off the bike and took a real in depth look at it, and REALLY struggled getting the cable out. Eventually we did get it out, and initially the shifter indexed without the cable. However, when we put everything back on the bike, the shifter wouldn't index. We're afraid something may have popped loose in either pulling the cable out, or the reapplication of the shifter and the cable itself. If ANYONE has ever seen a problem like this, PLEASE put anything down that may help!!! I'm bikeless right now, and there's a good hilly 60 miler tomorrow i'm considering doing, if allowed.

My mechanic at the shop said that 105's aren't meant to be rebuilt...if that's the case I'll have to shuck out 108 dollars to get a new one that doesn't even match.

105s aren't intended for rebuilding, but all may not be lost. Possibly something is simply out of position or jammed.

Try threading a new cable but not attaching the other end. Then with gentle tension on the cable try working the lever in either or both directions and see of you can get something to give. You might also douse it in light lube as a hail Mary.

BTW- while they aren't intended to be rebuilt, I believe there are shops that are successful doing that, so even if yours seems dead, it might be saved for some dough, so at least you'll still have a matched set.

Easy thing first. Confirm that the head of the cable is actually in the "socket" of the part that rotates when you shift. If it was rotated down out of sight when the new cable was installed, you may have simply bypassed it when threading the cable through the shifter, and when that part rotated back up, it might've met the cable head in its path and gotten stuck in no-man's land.

Also, try holding the main lever blade and applying a bit of pressure in the outboard direction. If you manually pull it outboard, then push inwards, do you get clicks now? I've seen levers that have taken some damage and no longer cock for the next shift by themselves, they're inhibited from reaching their normal resting position.

There's also the possibility that some frayed strands are in your shifter's innards.