Originally Posted by tomacropod
Also, don't pull them apart. A customer decided to "overhaul" his < 12 month old, perfectly operating brifters for some reason, started taking them apart without noting the order and arrangement of things, became completely confused and brough them in to be reassembled. We quickly came to the agreement that a bike mechanic was no more likely to make sense of the parts than anyone else, and that he take his take-away container of parts to a watchmaker.
Hahaha. I took some old 105 8-speed brifters apart when the pawl wouldn't release reliably anymore. Of course, springs flew everywhere, and I spent some time on my hands and news finding them. I spent longer figuring out how to put it back together, tho after I lubed it with some normal chain lube, and finally got all the parts in the right places, it worked great.