Campy Veloce Rear deraileur all sorts of problems....
 

No Matter what I do I can't get this rear derailleur adjusted properly. I had it going good when I first built the bike, now I have put a total of about 50 miles and I cant for the life of me get it to stay where it belongs. Everything is brand new (cables, housings, shifters, etc) 2007 veloce. I tried going back to 0 (removing the cable and starting from scratch), and when upshifting to larger cogs it will skip a gear when it gets to the larger gears, when downshifting sometimes it requires 2 clicks and then it will skip a gear. It always ships the 2nd smallest gear when downshifting, and I can only catch that gear upshifting if I'm very delicate. it almost feels like its indexing 1 less time than it should. I turned the barrel adjuster, I set the screws as per the instructions. Maybe I should set it back to the way it was out of the box (how would I even do that?) and start there. I just don't know.

Not only that but sometimes in 3rd through 6th gear the chain clanks on to the rear cogs like its not timed properly and stretched. The chain is brand new and has 50 miles as well.

Any ideas? This is driving me nuts and with this 3 day weekend I wanted to get 3 good days of riding in. I did a quick 15 miler today, I would prefer to get some more distance in and also have it work properly for the Duathlon I have in 2 weeks.

Before doing any more work on it I'd check that the hanger hasn't been bent.

Good advice on checking the derailleur hanger, also does Campy have a B tension screw? If so taking off tension on the B tension screw will give more chain wrap and will make for better up shifts while adding tension will have the opposite effect.

I would also, at the minimum, lube up your cables, and at would most likely replace the housing.

I'd also advise checking the shifters for any problems.

Thanks for the tips, the parts are all brand new though, cables, housings, etc. I would have to replace them after only 50 miles? what kind of damage could I have done?

As for the B screw (thats the one under the deraileur right?), as per the Campy instructions I tightened it all the way. So I guess I should back off on it a bit.

Luckily I have a spare deraileur hanger around here somewhere, so I can maybe change that out tomorrow as soon as I find it in my closet!

Another thing to check is chain length. If it will allow "Big-Big while still having a fair bit of slack, it is too long.

If I do big/big the deraileur is almost fully stretched out, I'll try and get some pics that I'll put up later on.

I dont know where the B tension spring is on Campy, but on Shimano it rests against the back of the derailleur hanger and will just rotate your derailleur about the pivot bolt.

wow, yeah the cables and housing should be fine. If you have access to an air compressor you could blow out the housing and then lube it up with tri flow, do not use a dry lube on the housing as the tend to build up and negatively affect your shifting.

Checking the shifter might be a good idea. You could could undo the derailleur fixing bolt and then shift the shifter so that it would be in the smallest cog and then measure how much cable it is taking per up shift and see how that compares to what it should be taking up.

Good luck

Theres a screw on the bottom of the deraileur on the Campy that the instructions say to tighten all the way and then shift to the large gear and if its coming close to scraping the spokes to back off of the screw.

So this maybe could be a shifter problem (also brand new), part of me wants to dump this thing off at the LBS to fix, but I built it, I need to figure out how to fix it.

Here are pics of the chain in position this is large large:

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...s/IMG_0266.jpg

Small Small

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...s/IMG_0267.jpg

closeup on small/small

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...s/IMG_0268.jpg

Deraileur hanger looks straight:

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...s/IMG_0269.jpg

Dead on from the back, I lined it up to the smallest gear as per instructions:

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...s/IMG_0270.jpg

This is 4th gear lined up as per the instructions using the barrell adjuster

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...s/IMG_0271.jpg

This is the bike in 3rd gear when its making the clack clack sound and the teeth dont seem to mesh with the chain

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...s/IMG_0272.jpg

PS yes those are shimano pedals on a campy bike, I know I belong in hell for it. :)

The chain looks too short in the Big/Big photo. The pulley cage should be at a 45 degree angle to the level ground.
Maybe the tightness caused an alignment issue. The suggestion to check dropout hanger alignment is a good one. Also verify the rear triangle isn't misaligned.

Just putting on a new derailer hanger is not the answer. You need to check the alignment of the derailer hanger whether it is new or old. Even brand new, perfect out-of-the-box detailer hangers need to be aligned. The derailer mounting point must be in the same plane as the rim. To achieve that the hanger may need to be bent using the proper tool. The tool allows it to be checked both vertically and horizontally and then provides the leverage to apply pressure and bend it if needed. It is tough to visually look at the alignment without the tool since it doesnt take much to be off significantly. An error of around 2mm or more can make it impossible to achieve proper shifting. Have your LBS check it before you waste any more time wrestling with the RD adjustments.

I'm not 100% sure, but based on the angle of your der your hanger may be a bit out of whack. Take it in to your LBS.

Some posters maybe right about the d hanger being a bit bent, but pictures can deceive. Bike shops have a tool for checking and aligning d hangers and it usually costs around $10 to do.

Also, your housing looks a little long on the rear der. You want to have 1 single bend and it looks like you have 2. You might want to check that your housing coming from the shifter is also as short as possible. I hate to harp on it, but a lot of shifting problems are cause by the housing cable interface.

This is probably less advisable, but sometimes I just grab the derailleur and muscle it around to get it perp. to the cogs. Again, maybe not the best thing to do.

Also, is that all the tension you can get on your B tension screw? You appear to have a large amount of chain wrap so if you are experiencing poor down shifts that is probably the problem.

Is that a compact double? Shouldn't you have the long cage?

It is a compact double, I believe I have the short cage as per the specs from the place I bought it from.....

Ok I'm new to this... which one is the B screw and what does it mean when I have chain wrap?

Ok Before I go nuts, I have a chunk of the chain that I removed when building the bike, does anyone think if I maybe added 1 or 2 new links it could conceivably solve the problem?

Agree. This is the first place to look. Your LBS with a complete shop and good mechanics have the proper tool to check this. You can't eyeball check the rear hanger unless it is way out of alignment. Also make sure the limit screws are set properly.
In one photo it looked like your limit screw on the smallest cog is slightly out but, that may be an illusion. Try using the barrel adjustor to fine trim the settings.
I built up a friends compact centaur group on a bike I borrowed for the Ride Virginia and I found it took more than the normal care to get right. Your chain is on the shorter side but should work as is. You are at the limit with the short cage RD. Your cogset looks like a 13-26t if you go to a 13-29 you will need a medium cage at least.

yes adding 1 or 2 more links to the chain will help, and as everyone said check the hanger because it is bent.

ok I'm gonna add 2 links and re-adjust just for the hell of it since I need them anyway. Then if I still have problems I will likely just take it to the LBS, since I'm not going to buy special tools just to check these things.

Ok so I basically fixed it. What I ended up doing was the following:

Lengthened the chain by 1 link (bought a master link too so the chain is now removeable) it now matches any pictures I can find about chain length.

I disconnected the cables, Re set the high and low, ignored the campy instructions and got the Shift Indexing instructions from the parktool site and used that to tune each gear. It didnt work perfectly on the stand but on the road under load it works great.

The only problem I have now is sometimes when shifting down towards a smaller gear it will still skip 2nd and go straight towards the smallest. It indexes fine in the other direction. Otherwise all other issues seem to have have worked out.

Hanger looks a little bent. The chain also looks a little short but its a campy chain so DONT break the chain and add a link unless you have a link kit. Campy chains are not designed to be broken and reattached.