Originally Posted by
well biked
I know personally of dozens of cases of using WD-40 to flush out gunked up Shimano shifters with the result being the shifters worked just fine indefinitely thereafter. You can analzye all you want about what problems WD-40 might cause, but the reality is that old gunked up shifters can work for years after being flushed with WD-40. In the OP's case, he has 14 year old shifters that don't work. They're not really a serviceable item, at least in terms of most folks' idea of practical thinking. Shifters showing the symptoms the OP's shifters are showing can very often be brought back to life by a simple flushing with WD-40 that takes a few minutes of easy work, and if it does bring them back to life there are no negative affects afterwards, the shifters just work whereas before they did not.
I use WD40 myself. I just don`t agree with spraying or splashing large quantities of it near other parts that it might damage - like tires, brake hoods etc. So I suggested taking the shifter off the bike - which is what I would have done.
And I guess disposable is relative too and very much a personal decision. In a shop where labor costs average $60/hour - lots of perfectly recoverable parts become `disposible` just because its not cost effective to repair them. On the other hand - some people on here have obviously spent a riduculous number of hours polishing $15 aluminum parts because they were restorinh a bike.
I did tech support at the 2010UIC Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships at Mont Ste Anne last year so I`d like to think I`m at least reasonably competant and any advice I post on here is intended to help out and not intended to personally offend anyone.
So I really hope there`s room for more than one opinion on the board otherwise - I`ll simply go skiing instead!