If you don't want to read the whole story that's fine, just scroll down to the bottom where the problem is.

I just finished cleaning my chain for the start of the riding season and I decided to put on a power link. I grabbed my chain rivet tool to pop out two rivets and remove a small section to be replaced with the power link. Then I realized that the power link I had to put in was utter crap and could unlink with the slightest force in the wrong direction (say a pothole or something). I went to my local shop and bought a black SRAM powerlock, which the sales person advised me he uses himself on three different chains. I got home, and realized that the powerlock was reallly hard to lock-in. I put the link into the chain and tried to lock it into place using my hands but I couldn't apply enough force to lock it, I tried wrapping the chain around my legs and using my legs to do it, still nothing. I was amazed at how much force I was putting in but it wasn't locking. I can only get it to maybe 1/5 locked and I can't get it to travel the rest of the 4/5ths into place; I even lubed up each half of the link. I figure with some channellock pliers or something similar(which I don't own a pair of) that I will be able to get the link locked. I will be heading out one day to find some to add to my collection of tools.



The problem comes in when I tried to use the pair of pliers I do have. They aren't even quite large enough to get to both sides of the link halves. So I ran the chain through my drive train, put the halves into the eyes of the chain. Then I called in my room mate to hold my rear dérailleur into place to remove the tension from the chain. I got everything setup and applied some pressure, then the chain appeared to twist so I chose not to continue until I got big enough pliers for the job. Side note: I tried to lock the powerlock the way shown on youtube for unlocking it, but with the wrong kind of pliers.


Now the problem is that during this process of removing the tension, and before I applied any pressure to the link, their was a click or clink sound in the rear system. After I was done with my room mate I decided to investigate what the noise could have been and fix the chain so that it would go through the cage properly. After some investigation, I realized that was what sound must have been related to. The upper pulley isn't positioned correctly so that the chain touches both pulleys. It only touches the bottom pulley not the one labelled G pulley.


What I've done so far.
I took a look into my big blue book and found that there is a spring related to the cage positioning, I decided to take a look at it and opened it up but it turned out not to be the issue. I figured the noise was one of the prongs on one end of the spring snapping or shifting to a second hole which the blue book suggested there might be. I have a shimano 105 system on my bicycle. It does not have two holes and the spring did not break in any place. I am currently having trouble getting the spring and stuff back together to be able to remount the dérailleur onto my bike, the daylight is all but gone at this point and I find it hard to work on it with little light so I decided to post my woes online. If you have some tips on getting that bit back together I would appreciate it. I was able to get it rotated far enough, but I couldn't push the washer lock back under the threads on the bolt that goes through the middle of the spring. This is because I couldn't get the plate back on fully, there was a gap and I was unable to push it down. I figure I need to keep it twisted while I push it on all the way, and that was when it snapped all the way back around *sigh*

That was all I tried, so I have no clue why my 105 isn't positioned correctly.

Please give me some ideas to test out tomorrow afternoon when there is more light and I am done my errands.

Pictures, if you all want pictures please ask. If required or desired, I will collect some tomorrow. I will try and grab some of all the parts you mention, if I mentioned a part but didn't use the correct terminology and you need a reference as to what I am referring, again, I will collect a photo of it; just ask for one and quote the part in question.


Post-Solution Edit:
http://video.answers.com/how-to-inst...lleur-66770524
I saw one site refer to this pin as a p-screw but this video which basically shows you how to get at the spring calls it a p-knuckle. So to anybody who stumbles upon this thread with a similar issue, gl with you're p-part.