moxfyre

The cage of my 1990 Suntour Edge road derailer appears to have a bit of wobble in it, in the sense that if I grab it I can pull it side to side a few mm. I am thinking that this may contribute to the crappy indexing (though the unramped freewheel is probably a bigger problem). It's a long cage.

All the derailers I have seem to have the same problem, a 2003 LX (which shifts flawlessly on my touring bike), an older LX I have lying around, and another Suntour Edge derailer with a short cage.

Is a wobbly cage anything to worry about? What I've noticed is that the two pulleys don't sit in a perfect vertical plane one above the other when mounted on the bike, the lower pulley sits a few mm closer to the plane of the chainring. Could this be affecting shifting?

Eros

I'm curious about this too. My alignment gets worse on each larger cog. I'm wondering if this explains why I can't get to the largest cog? It performs well otherwise.

sydney

To much will hose index shifting. If your freewheeel isn't suntour compatible that may be part of it.

moxfyre

Ya, that's what I was thinking about. The trouble is, I can identify any specific wobbly part of the derailer. I've disassembled it to the extent possible, tightening up the pulley bolts, etc. The freewheel is SunTour.

I'm resisting the urge to get a new bike