corrado33

Why would you put a WRX motor in one when you can just as easily use an old 12V VR6 and make 800 HP easy?

In response to your original question. No, not all bike parts will work with all bikes. You may have come across a combination that does not work. Some styles of front derailleur aren't compatible with other styles because they don't have the same range of movement. I came across this the other day. Someone came into the shop with an old schwinn that had a front derailleur that didn't work using pivots (like normal front derailleurs) but instead the cage moved by sliding in and out on a post (linear bearing if you will.) The derailleur broke, so we tried to replace it. I could not find one in our entire shop that would work because those old style derailleurs moved MUCH closer to the seat tube so the inner chainring was also much closer to the seat tube. No other derailleur should shift that closely to the frame. I ended up sending him on his way with only the rear gears working. We had no choice, I literally could not fix it unless we ordered a matching derailleur to the one that broke or replaced the BB (which the owner didn't want to do.)

It's perfectly possible that your bike cannot be fixed. If you actually want answers, post pictures and we'll be able to tell you if it'll work or not.

cncwhiz

I took some pictures but I need to resize them to up load. What type of detail do I need to get for pictures?

70sSanO

My only suggestion is to re-post this in the Bicycle Mechanics forum with pictures and please do not blame the LBS for not wanting to charge you hundreds of dollars to track down old parts to put on your bike. It is easy to just buy parts that don't work and throw away way too many dollars.

I have done a ton of research on bikes and parts, searching forum threads, along with a lot of years of just working on bikes, to understand issues why some things work and some don't and I still miss a whole bunch of stuff I should know. A lot of help can be had on BF, but you have to show people what you have and then ask for suggestions. And with older parts, some of this is a journey.

John

BlazingPedals

As I think I understand your problem, you have a frame that was designed for a braze-on front derailleur. But a braze-on derailleur won't move up or down the seat post enough to accommodate the crankset you want, and the braze-on itself gets in the way of using a clamp-on derailleur?

bmthom.gis

Best to do photobucket and link from there....
I want to see the old FD and the new one and your general set up.

That's my suspicion as well.

Black wallnut 

I take exception to your advice. The best solution is to have the forum host the images if they matter tot he thread or post. Re-sizing to 640x480 should not be a problem and can show enough detail for most things. Off site picture hosting sites come and go and they change their UA often enough that pics that are here today are gone tomorrow. Second best is to use a domain that you own to host the pic and hot link to it. Once again this is only good as long as you make keeping the image up a priority.

I've been a forum junkie since dial-up days. It is helpful to remember that there are still folks with dial-up service and large images don't play well with that.

cncwhiz

It's not a braze on fd. It has a clamp style. The issue is that it really it is not a top or bottom fd. The cable goes to a screw and if fastened to the frame. So basically in order, it goes down from the top tube. on the fd there is a stop for the housing on the fd. after the fd the cable goes down and screws to the frame.

corrado33

Please post pictures? I'd love to see it!

BlazingPedals

What you're describing is a bike that doesn't have a cable stop for the FD, and an original FD that doesn't need one. You can buy a clamp-on cable stop.

cncwhiz

I will be working on it tonight. I have the old derailleur on my desk in front of me. The "cable stop" is connected to the cable arm. I don' have that part with me but it seems like the cable does not do much. It looks like when the cable is moved, the housing flexes and shifts the part. I will take some detailed picks.

Fastfingaz

I thought you were supposed to take those pictures a week ago ???hurry up,,I been waitin......

cncwhiz

Well here is how it was before I messed with it. I changed over to a primo biospace. I put some xt brifters on it and thought I would improve the shifting by changing to an xt top pull fd. Well I decided that I would change thew fd back to the way it was before. It is now shifting but still not perfect. I got yhe numbers off the front derailleur. The one on the bike that was on it before was an fd-m400. I bought a xt derailleur off of ebay. It was a fd-m750. This fd -m750 is a nine speed derailleur. The bike is an 7 speed and I believe this was the current problem. I would still like to get away from the odd ball way it is now setup. It was not shifting well before and I adjusted it wrong and broke the old shifter. I don't want to do this again. I am still not sure how to fine tune it and not break it again.

pedlar

where there's a will,there's a way

eastbay71

Thanks for the pictures! I can honestly say I've never seen that setup before although my 72 nishiki has a similar bottom pull setup. In the older FD configuration the cable stays in one place and the cable housing moves to move the derailluer. The old front derailluer works completly differently than the way the FD-750 works. You need to add a clamp on cable stop to the seat tube well above the front derailleur to get the RD-M750 to work. Sometimes you run into a problem with changing out front derailleurs because they won't reach the outer or inner ring. You can change the bottom bracket to get the alignment right but this in itself can lead to a stack of BB's on your work bench. Look up chainline and BB spacing to get some idea of what problems you might run into. Don't take it too hard that you didn't get the right stuff right away. I've got bins full of parts I thought might work to find later they were no go. It can be very trial and error when you're first starting with bikes. Maybe look into getting a book like Zinn & the art of roadbike maintenance to help you get up to speed. They sell a mountain bike version as well but I've never understood why they need two books. Also check out Problem Solvers to find unique parts to help you make things work and read through Sheldon Brown's web pages.

Oh one more question! Are you using DeoreXT shifters? You can run into issues with the shifters pulling not enough or too much cable for the derailluer you want to use

rex615

I have a CX bike that has a similar set up. Mine has a little wheel/pulley that goes on that bolt and the cable goes around it and pulls down. There is a cable stop higher up on the frame. I am on the road and this is the only pic I have. I can take a better one upon my return should you be interested.

Your solution seems to be working fine.

eastbay71

This is not what he has. Cross bikes use the little pulley so they can run a bottom pull road bike FD with a top pull cable. This keeps the cables out of the way when you're carrying your bike and out of the mud.

I had some time to look up images of your Trek 6000. It seems like it's a 1991. Looking at the pictures I really wonder what Trek was thinking when they built this. Why not add a cable stop to the seat tube. It looks like they had their own version of the FD-M400 Exage made for this bike just to avoid putting the cable stop on. The whole sliding cable housing thing was old technology even in 1991.

rex615

So the way the OP has it connected in his photo is the way the design is intended to work?

eastbay71

Yes but it's not a common setup which is why it was hard to picture what he was describing. I thought the same thing about the little pulley at first too.

rex615

Thanks, I have leaned something new. Now that I look at it I realize the bolt hole in mine is higher. On the OP's bike it is probably too low to easily accommodate a pulley.

corrado33

I've never seen a setup like this, but it's definitely cool! There's certainly nothing preventing the installation of another derailleur on this bike. You may have to buy the bolt on cable stop pictured above, but other than that nothing is wrong.

Alternatively run the cable along the downtube and bring the cable up under the BB like many modern bikes.

If the derailleur you bought is supposed to work with your BB spacing, then you should have no problem getting it adjusted.

cncwhiz

To it out and got it working pretty good. I like the biospace setup. I go for a good ride tomorrow. Thanks for the support. Learning.

skye

Sometimes you just gotta pay a visit to The Master.