Originally Posted by
Kimmo
That's a pretty good vid, IMO. Unfortunately it seems to fall down right where you need it though.
Bah...
Keep scratching your head, you should be able to figure it out. These have
nothing on STI. I've overhauled a few pairs of STIs, and I still don't thoroughly understand em, but Ergo is basic.
If STI is Lego Technic, Ergo is Duplo.
I'll see if I can break it down a bit for you. The flipper and mouse ear each pivot so as to engage a ratchet when pressed; you can pretty much disregard each end of the mechanism as it's simply about actuation. The action is all in that little bit in the centre, but the vid seems to gloss over what's left in the lever body when the indexing ratchet is removed. Having only worked on gen1 Ergos, I can't tell you much about that except it seems to be the issue here.
First and second generation ergo levers are pretty much a Campagnolo down-tube shifter except the mechanism is temporarily engaged by levers with pawls instead of one permanent lever and the two G-springs are fixed with the index cam moving instead of the other way around with three moving G-springs and fixed index.
Third generation Ultrashift levers move to fixed index cam and moving detent mechanism, but replace the G-springs which wear out with ball bearings riding atop coil springs.
While the front lever works the same, the rest of the mechanism is different in Escape as in "escapement" which is its own thing more like Shimano and SRAM which both use escapement mechanisms (that's why they only shift one cog smaller).
Mechanism replacement is probably in order. While one can buy the right mechanism for $80-$90 (one unit containing everything except brake blade, hood, and mounting hardware is Campagnolo's new sales model for shifter small parts), a brand new set of Escape levers can be had for $90 and NOS 2010 Veloce Ultrashift levers $125 imported from the UK with cables included. Where a cable set runs $50 and hoods $30 both of which are wear items you'll eventually replace the net costs are $10 and $45 respectively.
If you did have a first or second generation lever, G-springs run $10 and the carrier which seems to break every other time is a $10 part which would still make replacement attractive if it did not conflict with your sense of aesthetics.