Did a search here and on Park's about this. Here is the issue: Need to replace both front and rear shifter cables on sons bike. The instructions look simple enough but I have not been able to thread the new cable through the thing. Any simple tricks I have over looked.

Parks mentions something about soldering the end of the cable. I now also know why when you buy a set of Rival/Force/Red shifters the shift cables are already installed. The instructions are lame vs. Shimano.

About the third time songs started to repeat on the Ipod shuffle it is time to punt and seek help. As always, thanks in advance.

Soldering the end of the cable is only necessary if you're trying to reuse old cables. The solder is just to prevent the end from fraying while trying to poke the cable into the hole.

Just make sure that you're attempting to thread the cable into the right hole, make sure that its shifted to the positions at which the cable would have the least tension possible, and then just keep poking and poking and poking. Sometimes all it takes is just a bit of time and perseverance; theres no real skill or finesse to threading the cable into a shifter. Though, it may help if you can take a flashlight and look for the hole, then at least that will give you a visual cue as to where the hole is.

The important part is just making sure you haven't shifted at all on the new shifters. If you're installing the right shifter, click the shifter all the way down as if you were bringing the chain to the smallest cog. If you're doing the left shifter, shift it all the way down as if you were shifting to the smaller ring.

I have done all the above to no avail for almost an hour! New cables. I have frayed the ends and cut them off to make a fresh start multiple times. I am worried that I will end up with a cable that is threaded thru the shifter but is too short for the run needed.

If no other suggestions pop up, I will warm up the solder gun and give that a try. I like the way the Sram shifters work but there ought to be a better way to replace the cable.

I'm in the same boat as you with my Rival groupset. I need to buy new shifter cables tomorrow, and hopefully will have better luck this time than with the used cable (practically new from a take-off). I was able to get the right shifter in, just having trouble with the left.

Hopefully someone has a secret trick they would like to share. I guess solder iron will be coming out too.

You're not supposed to easily be able to thread in a clipped derailleur cable. It's almost always going to fray when you try to put it in.

It is a little awkward - go for finesse, not force. Be patient and it will thread through. Single tap all the way down on both shifters first. It may also be helpful to pull the housing to take threading into the ferrule out of the equation.

The best way to do this is with a fresh shifter cable that has not been cut before. Once the shifter has been released to it's zero cable pull (e.g smallest cog/chainring position for rear/front shifter respectively) you can insert the cable.

With the sram shifters, it actually has to bend quite a bit to go up and out of the shifter itself - you'll need to exert a little bit of force to get it to bend this way if you want it to actually go through. After doing it once successfully you'll understand what this means.

The new one got frayed trying to get it to go thru so it had to be cut to get a fresh surface. Just a note:
I am not a rookie, I have built up more than a dozen road bikes with no problems like this. First Sram system however.

Thanks for the input. I just thought that maybe someone had come up with some undocumented trick to make this job easier.

It's also worth noting that Shimano cables are often too thick to go in, you have to use SRAM or campy cables.

What? Campy spec derailleur cables are 1.2mm, shimano STI is 1.2mm, Sram 1.1mm. Explain?

I've used cables marked as for campy. Shimano cables definitely don't fit though.

The point was, if you go to an LBS and ask for cables they will probably hand you some generic Shimano spec cables and they won't fit.

Generic spec derailleur cables can be 1.1 or 1.2mm. Both fit shimano. Your LBS should know this difference if you tell them either

a) a sram road brifter compatible cable
or more unambiguously
b) 1.1mm stainless drawn derailleur cable

Brand new cable and a little lube. Super easy. I felt stupid trying so long with the used cable.

You can also unscrew the small cover to access the shifter opening easier.

The new cable is from a Jagwire Racer kit, road only, supposed to be both Campy & Shimano compatible
so I am having a hard time that a 0.1mm difference in the diam. will make this job impossible?

I did unscrew the cover plate to see what was going on. Only added to the frustration that the cable just does not want to find the guide hole and come out the other end.

Not impossible, but very, very difficult.

Jagwire cables are all 1.1mm.

https://www.speedgoat.com/product.asp...t=27&brand=124

I'm no expert, but I was just struggling with this a few days ago. I had much better luck by NOT doing it as illustrated in the manual. Basically, you need to separate the "threading the needle" part of the operation from the "routing around the pulley" part of the operation. Then there is less drag on the cable and it goes fairly easily. This is what worked for me:

Take the COVER OFF to insert the cable. Shift into a position where you can see BOTH sides of the white plastic cable stop with the tiny cable hole in it. (so you see the end of the cable coming through the hole)

Thread the (soldered) cable through the hole and then pull the cable end BACK OUT of the shifter housing by about a foot.

Bend the tip of the cable a little bit and route it around the underside of the pulley. Push until it comes up on the far side. You'll need to give the cable a firm tug to pull the loop of cable back inside.

Soldered cables are MUCH easier on these. Maybe a dab of superglue on the end would be close enough to get that double ended cable to work for you.

You don't need to do this.

This is much more complicated than it needs to be. There's no reason why the OP can't simply push the cable through. We do cable changes on sram force/rival/red all the time in the shop and you simply push the cable through. It doesn't fray and you don't waste shop time on unecessary procedures.

And oh and you're fired if you do it the way you described

And 100% wrong.

https://www.jagwireusa.com/index.php/...s/mountain/499

We used 1.2mm jagwire exclusively for brake and shifter at our old shop (didn't do any high end stuff like sram road).

I gathered from the original post that he tried "just pushing the cable through" and it didn't work for him. I'm guessing that your shop doesn't use the same double ended cable kits that the OP is trying to use. When you cut off the unwanted campy end, the freshly cut cable frays like hell when trying to round the corner. Sometimes heading off to the LBS to get a fresh cable is infinitely more trouble than taking out 3 screws.



"This is much more complicated than it needs to be. There's no reason why the OP can't simply push the cable through. We do cable changes on sram force/rival/red all the time in the shop and you simply push the cable through. It doesn't fray and you don't waste shop time on unecessary procedures. "

No shop uses double ended cables like that. Not one that's profitable anyways. Cables and housing are bought in fileboxes in bulk. These are the same cables that you can buy individually. In which case the OP's problem isn't technique. He's buying the wrong type of cable for an easy repair.

More like 15% wrong. Most of their cables are 1.1mm. They make one range that's 1.2mm, which I learned after making my post (I've never seen them for sale anywhere, only found out about them through the website) but forgot to go back and edit it.

Update: Here is what I did to make this work. Soldered the end of the Jagwire cable after I cut off the end. Threaded through the hole then up shifted to make both the cable end and hole you have to thread thru in the housing visible(little cover removed). Put a small dab of lube in the housing hole. Downshifted until the 2 holes were lined up as much as they came from the mfg. Got the cable to thread through the housing.

The other side went off just as in the instructions without a problem, but I did solder the end of the cable and bent it slightly per Parks web site.

I think this is a manufacturing tolerance issue as others have had the same experience.

For those of you that have done this with no problem, I still have one question for you. Why does Sram supply the shifter cables installed when you have a new set?

The thickness is one issue but also some cables are more flexible than others. It has to make a tight bend after going through the hole, then go in another hole inside. A more flexible cable makes the bend easier and is in a better position to get into the second hole.

I just dealt with this issue today on my Force front derailleur. Got a new teflon coated Jagwire 1.1 mm cable. It would not poke thru the shifter hole at first - frayed very easily. Could not strip the end of the cable to solder, as that would fray too. Finally stripped about a 1" section, 1" from the end of the cable. Had to get the wire VERY hot before the solder would soak into the cable wires. When it cooled, I cut the cable halfway thru the soldered part. This time it did not fray, and went into the hole correctly. Thanks to all for your ideas on this!