Ames

It shifts to the larger front chain ring and kind of locks up and you have to play with the shifters and then to return to the smaller front chain ring and does not move the shifter till at the bottom of the lever throw. Any ideas?

AngryScientist 

hard to diagnose with your butchery of the very idea of sentence structure, however it sounds like you may have a cable binding up, i'd pull the cable out and see if there is any obvious binding as a start.

Ames

Thanks for trying to understand the jibberish, I was interupted about 10 times and did not even try to structure properly.

AngryScientist 

i know how that goes, busy day here too. anyway, try the cables first, sounds like a likely candidate for your problem. campy shifters seem to be very sensitive to cables, when i set up my current bike it shifted like garbage until i got the cable routing established, i'd imagine that some gunked up cables could easily ruin your shifting experience.

clausen

Because you mention lock up, I'm guessing it's with the derailleur rubbing the chain. If it is a new problem your derailleur was bumped and now out of alignment. If it's newly installed could be limit screws are set incorrectly or alignment of the derailleur.

Creakyknees

1. clean the bike, especially under the BB where the cables get gunky
2. make sure the f-der is clean and moving freely
3. the cables and housings might need replacing if it's been a while. use Campy parts and do the job right
4. as long as you have the bars un-taped, download the Campy manual for the shifter and place a drop or 2 of the correct lube in there.

rm -rf

Good ideas.
But No. 4 won't help much. The lube won't get in where it would do any good, unless you disassemble the shifter. (Note--it's a lot easier to disassemble than to reassemble)

Ames, which part doesn't work correctly? The shift lever or the thumb button? Do they move freely but nothing happens, or do they feel stuck?

also try:
5. Sometimes the rubber hood cover can interfere with the movement of the levers.
6. a broken spring can make the shifting not work well in one direction. But it doesn't sound like your problem.

Ames

The paddle works to go to the large chain ring fine. The thumb lever does not move the cage till towards the bottom of the brake hood. I do not feel it "rachet" the cage till then. Cannot move the lever or thumb button right after shift to the large chain ring but can shortly after. Did put new handlebar tape on and wraped it pretty tight. No cage rub problem.

Thank you I kind of feel it may be the handle bar tape.

rm -rf

That happened to me occasionally when my shifters were new. If you put any pressure on the thumb button while trying to move the shift lever, they will both be locked in place until you finally let go of both. (The same thing happens if you have a finger pushing the shift lever slightly when trying to use the thumb button) Try it when standing next to the bike and see.

If it shifts normally most of the time, this is probably the solution. A rubber hood interfering with the thumb button or the lever can do this too.

I don't think it's the tape at all.

Ames

Fix was cleaning and lubing the piviot points on the thumb button I did not know was there. The thumb button has a piviot point by the thumb pad before engaging the rachet shift mechanism on the cable. It was dirty and engaging poorly. Simple clean and lube.

Merry Christmas