Hey all hope you're having a great day,

I wanted to change the shift cable on my shimano sora lever (road groupset).
But, I was in a hurry and installed the cable incorrectly aka after the point where the head of the cable should be. Now the cable is stuck between the mechanism and casing and I cannot get it out. I tried poking, shimming, etc.

My next step would be drilling out the head of the cable but I'd really rather not...
I'm very grateful for any tips you might have.

Cheers,
Niklas

-Newbie so I cannot post images ....

But you can tell us that you put them on the Gallery here at BF and we can find them!



https://www.bikeforums.net/g/album/30313593

I myself wouldn't attempt to drill it. I know that I'd have the drill bit fall off the cable terminus and mess up all the other softer material that surrounds it. I'd work patiently with a good set of picks and small hooks to try and work the cable out. If they don't sell any small picks and hooks near you, then maybe a dentist has some old picks and other dental tools that they might give you or sell for a token sum.

If you pulled the lever, you might have already messed up something.

Welcome to BF.

Aha! Cheeky indeed. I'll remember that.

Thanks for the positive reinforcement. I build myself small hooks with some wire, but alas I cannot get it out. The shifter seems to be working perfectly fine, though. I'll swing by a dentist now and ask them for old equipment (great tip).
I'll keep this thread updated.

PS: A new shifter is like 60 Euros - would have been cheaper to work and just buy a new one at this point 😆.

Most wire will be too bendy. Though if you have a piece of MIG wire that doesn't break when you try to put a tiny hook on it, then it might work. You need some pick/hook tools made with tool steel or other hard metal that will hold it's shape when you pry or pull with all your might. A lot of your big box building supply stores, Harbor Freight, or Ace Hardware might have some cheapy's that will be good enough for this instance. Or wherever the equivalent type store is if you are outside the USA.

Try gripping the cable near the shifter with some locking pliers and twist & push it out. Make sure you twist in the direction that is tightening the cable rather than unwinding it. Worth a try.

I would take it apart, as shown here.

A short update:

andrewclaus
I would take it apart, as shown here.
-> I have the newer version, which, as far as I can tell from my research, cannot really be disassembled.

Iride01
Most wire will be too bendy.
-> Yeah, I tried with some steel wire first and then went to a dentist who gave me a hook and one of those scratchy right-angled things.

Thanks all for the suggestions. I tried everything and had two friends try it as well. However, none did manage to get the wire out, so we ended up drilling out the housing. As you can see in the photo, a slit goes up from the "inserting whole" for the wire. Not sure what the whole/slit is for exactly, but we drilled the whole out with a 4.8mm drill so we could just push the cable terminus through.
It all seems fine, but I'll try tomorrow with a new cable. I already CAD designed an insert for the hole to get it back to its original size - might 3d print that tomorrow as well and glue it in.
It was quite easy to drill it out and I do not think we damaged anything.

There is a new photo in the album where you can see the hole we drilled -still cannot post the URL

Thanks again to all and I will keep you posted.