Originally Posted by Chombi1

have you actually opened up one of these shifters and looked at the spring and barrel separatseparif you look at one that had been used for a long time, you will see how the spring will eventually wear grooves on the barrel from gripping it and providing d the resistance friction. Tue internal barrel does not move eith the lever as it is keyed to the base of the lever mounting boss. The internal barrel takes all of the friction duties along with the spring the mou ting screw and the face washers under it, just retains the lever and internal barrel on the shifter boss with minimal pressure. If you somehow add pressure to the shifter assembly to create friction, you are not utilizing the Retrofriction feature as it was designed which is zero friction when pulling the lever back and friction when pushing it forwards to resist the derailleur springs. This makes the action as light and as smooth as possible as you only have friction in one direction, which is resisting the derailleur spring. If you add friction through the mounting screws and washer somehow. You are uselessly making the action of the lever heavier in both directions. The springs and barrel do wear out eventually after years of use, just like any other shifter. It can be fixed by replacing the internal barrel and/or spring, which I had successfully done on a couple of my Retrofriction shifter sets. You can also just switch springs and internal barrels around with other Retrofriction sets and it could work, if the wear grooves on the barrel does not match up exactly with the spring coil pattern.