soupy

Here's my tale of woe: I found that my front shifter wasn't working at all - I think I must have accidentally twisted the barrel carrying my bike upstairs - so I tried loosening the barrel to fix it.

Not my first mistake, but a mistake nonetheless!

A small pin, roughly 2mm in length and shaped vaguely like a cotter pin (except symmetric) fell out of the barrel adjuster on my down tube. (I have STI 105 shifters.) Looking at the right side barrel, it was probably wedged in next to the rotating part.

Should I try to get it back in? If so, how?

Thanks!

bikeman715

did you find a small spring than goes over the barrel ? and the two parts goes into the plastic adjuster. you will have to remove the cable from the front dérailleur, I think you might need to replace the barrel adjuster parts which you can buy at your lbs for around $5. strew the adjuster back into it's post back off by one turn run the cable though it, reconnect it to the dérailleur and adjust the tension so it will shift again using the adjustment barrel.

HillRider

I've installed a bunch of Shimano downtube cable stops and I don't recognize the part you are describing.

The left-side (front derailleur) stops consist of:

An aluminum housing.

A 5 mm allan head retaining bolt that fastens the housing to the shifter boss.

A plastic "thimble" that you can turn by hand to adjust the cable tension. It has a notched bottom edge to keep it from turning spontaneously,

A metal cup with a threaded shank that goes through the plastic thimble and threads into the housing. The cup is the receiver for the cable housing.

A small coil spring that also goes around the threaded shank to keep it under tension.

There are no small pins of any description I've ever seen.

z415

A picture of where it popped out of and the said part might help, but as HillRider said, there is no retaining/cotter style pin there. Is there one on the right side?

jsharr

Did you possibly find a cable end crimp? If so, it was not supposed to be there I imagine

z415

So, since we are in agreement that such a thing should be there and is not necessary, is your bike working now? Does the front shifting work?

BikingGrad80

If you are unable to loosen the barrel adjuster the threads are probably full of debris or corrosion. If possible, get some penetrating oil in there and turn it looser and tighter then apply triflow or another proper lubricant or even better get some grease onto the threads. Never done that before so not sure if you can completly unscrew them to access the treads.

HillRider

Yes you can. The cup with the threaded shank, tension spring and plastic thimble can be unthreaded as a complete unit and the threads cleaned and greased or oiled.

soupy

https://i35.tinypic.com/16a2jio.jpg

I was referring to the small silver clip that juts out of the barrel. You can see part of it in the gap as well. I don't know if it was meant to be removed when the bike was assembled, because it's not held in very well!

I got it back in and the bike is shifting. Thanks!

HillRider

OK, those aren't Shimano cable stops but were made up to use in the braze-on fittings on the frame.

If you look closely you can see the end of the braze-on is notched and the tab probably rides in the notches as a retainer to keep the barrel from turning under vibration.

soupy

Ah. That makes sense.

Thanks!