I was swapping handlebars and removed the right 7sp SIS shimano bar-end shifter. After reassembly, I can only seem to get 5 gears even when cable is unattached. I've checked several times but can't find the problem. any advise?

First thing I would check for is that the lever w/ it's shaped base is properly rotated and aligned with the handle bar mounted body. In other words, if the lever wasn't "shifted" to gear 7 and also sitting nearly straight down it might be that only some of the click positions will be in the range of the improperly mounted lever travel. There's a mating surface alignment that is easy to miss position when installing the lever onto the body. Andy

I bought a used bike with Shimano 7spd bar end shifters that only worked for part of the range, but when properly installed they were flawless. For me the problem was a 90 degree rotation of the shifter (handle and part that hold cable) on the shifter boss (part that is held in the end of the handlebar; which has a allen bolt socket to tighten that turns in the opposite way you think DAMHIK). This is what I understood Andy to be saying above, but just wanted to chime in with +1.

-Will

You have to remove the levers, and their indexing disks, from the shifter body to install the bodies on the handlbars. You then have to reinstall the levers and the indexing disk in their proper orientation or nothing works properly. Been there, done that. It can be very frustrating until you get them arranged correctly.

I think everyone's piling on, so I'll join the party. I agree that you've probably gotten the indexing disk rotated to the wrong position. They fit in 4 orientations but only one is correct. When installed correctly, the fat tab needs to point down before the shift lever goes on.

The indexing disks is called a "lever boss cover" in this Shimano PDF: https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/ev/EV-SL-BS77-1664.pdf

A last piece of advice: once you've got everything in place and indexing, tighten the lever fixing screw with a big screwdriver. And then tighten it some more. If it comes loose, the index/friction switch can wiggle out of position which can break the index mechanism. This means new shift levers- Shimano doesn't sell repair parts.