I've never seen mine act like that. However I was wondering why you weren't turning the crank as you shifted.

What series is the FD? Have you ever used eTube? If so, connect it up and see if it tells you anything about it. At least the old version of eTube did a brief check of everything when it started up. But perhaps that was only a connection and firmware check. Haven't used the newer version of eTube.