Shimano st-4400 shifters full of sand!
 

This weekend I took a bit of a spill in a sandy area, right shifter went into deep sand. (I did go another 27 miles afterwards, bike works -- but can't get into the higher gears)

The shifter is now jammed, I think, with sand. Can shift only to the middle cog in the rear -- then pushing on the small shift level gets no more movement.

This bike's a year old, and while I've taken apart every bolt of older bikes -- I'm not sure what to expect with these shifters -- since they're combined brake and shift levers.

I printed out the parts list from the Shimano site, but there's no info on repairs, that I can find.

I'd sure like to try to fix this myself - but at least more info than a parts list --

Thanks for the help

Pete

you will need a lot of patience, and a lot of luck/skill to repair and reassemble a shimano brifter. i took an older model apart once and it took me a good hour to get the return spring back in the right position. it still didn't work much better than before i took it apart.

Your best bet is to flush it out and hope for the best.

You'll hear WD-40, PB Blaster, etc as the "best" solution. I use a product called Lock Lube. Seems to fix a lot of them.

Start with as strong a stream of water as you can get from garden hose. Spray it into the mechanism and shift at the same time. Once it frees up, flush with WD40, again as you are shifting, about an eighth of a can.

Repeat every time you replace the bar tape.