I have a Diamondback Topanga and the original FD is still fitted to the bike. I rebuilt the bike a few years ago but did not replace the FD. It has some wear on it around the pivot pin holes and I was now thinking of replacing it. However, it is an old Shimano Alivio FD and I cannot find out exactly which one it is or what would be a compatible replacement. I changed the crankset when overhauling the bike and the compatible FD for that chainset (42-32-24) is a Shimano Acera FD-M360. Again, you cannot now get this FD. The band width is very narrow on the Topanga and this is giving me a bit of a problem, although I do know I can maybe use shims.

Anyway, can anyone suggest a suitable top-pull Shimano replacement for this FD. I did take a photo, but it is pretty dreadful. Sorry about that.

3 x 7; 42-32-24; top-pull; 28.6 band.

Many thanks (........and, yes, I do know 'suitable' has an 'i' in it. Sadly, my keyboard let me down!)

The der likely has a model # stamped on the inner cage plate's back side, usually hard to see especially if there's corrosion or grime in the way. The important specs to duplicate is the tube clamp diameter (or E clip attachment), the large chain ring size capacity, the direction the cable pulls on the der from and the design of the parallelogram swing (which is top swing in this case). Otherwise there's a few grades of Shimano ders that should all work if the specs match. Andy

BTW- These Shimano ders, top swing MtBs, are well known for their slop in their pivots. We see most suffering form some amount of looseness but usually this isn't a performance factor of any great degree.

Many thanks, Andrew. I'll see if I can make out the number on the back of the cage. The performance does not seem to have been affected too greatly. Although, who knows, I may simply have compensated for any play in it. I have found it more stubborn to adjust in recent times though. But I was really only thinking of replacing it as a precautionary thing.