MikeIsOrganic

So I'm having horrible luck getting my wife's bike up and running. The right shift lever is simply not working at all. This is the 8th bike I've built from frame and fork up, and have never had near this many problems before, especially with new parts. They're Campy Centaur Ultra-Shift levers BTW.

History of what's happened:

Putting bike together and everything is going fine, then before even the first ride, the adjustment screw on the rear derailleur snaps in half (seriously campy? I know I didn't tension it by hand that hard), had to get a screw extractor to get the part out. Anywho, got that little annoyance fixed finally and route up the cables and everything looks fine! So I go to test and calibrate and nothing at all. I go and loosen the cable and the shifter wont even move the cable by itself. It clicks fine, sounds fine, and I run the exact same model shifter and rear der. on one of my main bikes. I've got no clue what's going on here but it's starting to get under my skin, and my wifes even more so.

Between them being mounted and the time I've had them (little over a month) I dont think I'll be able to return them, and I'm really not looking forward to opening up a brand new shifter to try and rebuild it. Anyone got any suggestions?

Al1943

If it is new it should be under warranty.
Are you sure you have the cable seated in the shifter correctly?
Try releasing all of the cable with the thumb lever, pull all of the slack out of the cable and then see if the larger shift lever will pull the cable back in.

ultraman6970

What model of campagnolo lever are u talking about? How old is it?

!st time i heard that the screws in the RD snaps, are u sure they were ok to start with?

As al mentions, the cable might be caught somewhere maybe? Take the cable off the RD and start clicking again, the cable should move, obviously apply some tension to the cable also.

If that doesnt work maybe the carrier in the lever broke, is not hard to change it but u need to find one, thats the reason i was asking about what model u were talking about because the record levers and the veloce levers arent equal in the internals. If the carrier is made of carbon get the aluminum one, the carbon one tends to brake.

Good luck

DaveSSS 

ultraman6970 - read the OP's post. He's got new Centaur ultrashift levers. The internals are entirely different than pre-2009 shifters - no g-springs or carrier and basically the same as the higher levels, except the higher level are 11 speed.


I'll bet that the shift cable is misrouted. Pull the cable out, shift the thumb button all the way down, then reinsert it through the small hole under the brake hood. Getting the cable over the small guide in the ergo body and into the tiny hole can be challenging. I use a 2mm hex wrench to push the end of the cable down while pushing on it.

Check for free movement of the cable by pulling on it by hand, while shifting the finger lever.

I highly recommend getting a new cable. I've tried reinstalling a used cable and had major friction problems.

You can also check the cable for proper movement, just by unclamping it from the RD, and watching the cable, just below the frame mounted cable stop.

I've installed quite a few of these levers since November of '08 and never had a problem making them work.

ultraman6970

Davesss i totally missed that part... sorry