Hopslam

Recent ebay purchase , rear of cage swings outward shifting to big ring.( Cage not staying parallel to rings)
Defective ? Or am I missing something here ?
Setting up with cage parallel over big ring with proper gap , chain on inner ring.

Had no fun getting this 443 as I'd rather not ebay. But I NOW find some amazon vendors to be not so hot either

Cheers

mconlonx

Is there an actual issue with the shifting when you are tuning or riding the bike?

Hopslam

No problem shifting . It's the rear of cage not in line with the front of the cage causing chain rub on at least 4 cog combos on big ring . Or if I compensate for the bad angle on the big (by twisting fd angle inward)then the small ring will rub several cogs. The Ultrega FD that was there before the 443 ran parallel . I converted drop to flat bar , now with XT 750 controls ( if I remember correctly )

cheers

reptilezs

is the fd moving on its mount? is it new or used?

Jeff Wills

Are you looking at the inner or the outer cage plate? The two of them aren't parallel, so it can look like the cage is moving in an arc. I would set the outer cage plate in line with the chainrings, then tweak from there.

Hopslam

outer cage plate , and I will check to see if there is movement at braze on connect point .
need another hand or 2 so I can watch whats going on

thanks for the replies & the FD is new

Looigi

Don't forget to torque the fasteners to spec.

mconlonx

It shouldn't make a difference, but if I was swapping from Ultegra to similar quality mtn component, I'd go with XT 7xx series FD. The 443 FD you describe does actually sound like it's defective, but some of the newer Shimano stuff in the past couple of years has been slightly more particular about setup. I'd swap out another mtn derailleur as part of diagnostics, Deore or SLX if you don't actually want to go all the way to XT level component.

FBinNY 

If this was bought used, and moves during shifts, it could be wear or condition related.

As the chain rises from the inner ring it can get snagged under a burr, or worn step near the front of the cage. That jams it, and the moving chain kicks the FD forward twisting it around.

This can also happen with a new FD, but it's much rarer.

Hopslam

I have a 52 tooth big ring was told here that this(443) was correct for application . I have a bunch of XT FD' s just none with braze on mount. Too small anyway ( 48 tooth max ) this bike is a Lemond carbon / Ti Victoire with Full Ultegra groupe 52/42/32

thinking defective ,along with an XT freehub wheel I bought in 08, their quality is slipping

easy fix is go bar end shifters and original FD , only money; (

thanks for your input

mconlonx

Ah. If that was the case, I'd have opted for Shimano flat bar road shifters (SL-R770) instead of mtn shifters in the first place.

Hopslam

Already had them around doing nothing though. But why would 770 work better? Both pull same amount of cable?

cheers

mconlonx

Different cable pull, I thought. Flat bar road shifter works with road components, where a mtn shifter doesn't. You'd still be able to use the Ultegra FD you removed.

Or someone will come along shortly to tell me I am completely wrong and question my manhood.

FBinNY 

Not likely here. After all it's not A&S

bobotech

Be careful here. SOME of the shimano flat bar road shifters are nothing more than moutain bike shifters with a different finish. I know that some 9 speed "flatbar" R44x series shifters are nothing more than standard mountain shifters with different colors. We compared a set of those shifters to a set of Deore "Mega 9" shifters and they were the same thing and pulled the same amount of cable.

I *think* that they have newer flatbar shifters that do work with road front derailleurs but not sure .

Hopslam

ok ; no man hood involved here the FD 443 is for flatbar on road bike ie shimano web ; 2 ) I don't know everything ( ie I'm old & like old proven stuff ie the end bar referance ) 3) was fishing here to see if there may have been a rash of bad 443's . & maybe I'm forgetting something ( age ya know ) I appreciate all responses ( intelligent ones ( or at least trying to be )

thanks. &. as always Cheers

hay , I learned this HERE
I'd been riding the Ultrega FD for over a year & cable adj. triming ; )

bobotech

Here is the thing about the R443 front derailleur. If you look at a R443 front derailleur and compare it to a similar Deore derailleur, you will see that the cable mounting arms are nearly identical, they have the same cable pull. The big difference is in the cages and how the mountain bike derailleurs have smaller cages for the smaller chainrings. The R443 front derailleur has a larger cage for the 52t front chainrings on road bikes.

With that said, the R443 will operate flawlessly with a standard 7-8-9 speed front mountain bike shiifter, you don't need the fancy flatbar shifters.

The pic is a comparison of a road derailleur (with the short arm) and a R443 derailleur with its long mountain cable pull arm.

Jeff Wills

Ditto to the previous several posters: the FD-R443 is 100% compatible with mountain bike shifters. I have 2 Gold Rush recumbents in my garage, both with FD-R443 front derailleurs. One has Deore "mountain" shifters, the other SL-R440 "flat-bar" shifters. Aside from color, they are indistinguishable in every way.