I pulled out my old mtn. bike from the garage after about 8 years. Before it was garaged, the gearing worked fine. But I started riding it the range of gears slowly diminished until I only have one gear I'm left in. Luckily, it's the easiest gear so I can still use it if I need to but it happened to the front and the back gears. Someone suggested I open the levers, give them a cleaning and a relube and try it again. I did that and still nothing works. When I push one of the two levers something inside moves just a little bit but not enough to engage any of the other moving parts in it. The other lever has no resistance and does nothing. Any siggestions on what I can do, or do they sound shot?

Tiff

Are these the old "thumb" shifters? Nearly all shifting problems are related to the actual cables and cable housing coming out of the shifters....not the shifters themselves. Since they worked fine and have slowly stopped working due to nothing catastrophic, I would strongly suspect the cables/housing.

Replacing them is fairly inexpensive and is the single best thing you can do!

If you're handy read this:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/cables.html

Completely false.

If the shifters are Shimano trigger shifters (which I am guessing they are), the lube that Shimano used on the ratchet pawls solidifies and keeps the pawl from engaging the toothed wheel. The result is a shifter trigger that moves but doesn't grab anything. If the "spray stuff on them" method doesn't work, there are only two options:

1) Replace the shifters. Best if you aren't mechanically inclined.

2) Disassemble the shifter, remove the small e-clip from the post where the pawl is mounted, remove the pawl and spring, clean the pawl and the post with brake cleaner, or a similar fast-drying solvent, lube the post and pawl, and reinstall. There are 2 of these pawls, usually. One is easy to get to, the other isn't. The one that isn't, spray with brake cleaner and work the pawl back and forth repeatedly with a small screwdriver until it moves freely. Spray it with lube (I use T9) and then reassemble the shifter.

Most bike shops see dozens of these every spring when people get their bikes out after being stored all winter.

Well, if it is the cables, would it still have the same problems when the cable isn't connected? I took the cables out and played with it and it was doing the same thing. I didn't think having the cable in or out would make a difference.

No, ignore the cables comment....completely and totally wrong.

What model of shifters are they? Sounds like a trigger of some sort with the two levers comment, but nice to know what specifically you've got. Assuming they're triggers, by cleaning them, did you spray liberal amounts of something with a fair amount of solvent like WD40 into the mechanism and work the levers while you did so? You don't have to take them apart literally, that may lead you to never getting them back together, just use the same access as the cable uses.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is a pawl? Is it the moving pieces with little arms on them? As I see it, I can't do any harm by trying to clean it myself even though I have no idea what I'm doing.

I think they're thumb shifters but I'm not sure.

The lid (for lack fo a better word) had to be taken off to get the cable out anyway. I used purple power degreaser when I was cleaning them. I probably didn't use as much as I could have but I had a puddle in the bin beneath the bike by the time I was done. I didn't try moving them while I was spraying as theyw eren't connected to the bike anymore. I did try to shift them for a few minutes after I sprayed them though.

You'll want to shift them a lot while you're cleaning them. The old grease gets pretty hard and you'll want to move the parts as much as possible to get the solvent/degreaser to break it up.

You asked what pawls were in an earlier post. Think of them as small claws that grab the teeth on a cog as you push the lever. They have small springs that allow them to slide over the teeth in one direction but grab in the other. The grease that's used to lubricate this mechanism gets hard as it ages and doesn't allow the claw to move like it should. You basically want to melt this old grease away to allow the parts to move freely again.

This will give you a look inside a shifter and some basic tips.
https://bicycletutor.com/rapid-fire-shifters/

On a tangent, I wonder if using some moderate heat would help speed up the process? I may get a cheap hair dryer for my bench and give that a shot next time I get some frozen shifters. Seem to get at least 1 every 10 days or so.

How about completely and totally and unequivocally wrong? It takes 3 adverbs to really discredit someone's advice and lend credibility to your own.

You may be 100% correct and if it helps the OP, great...that's the point.

Everyone posts here to learn and help, so ease up man! Keep your ankle spurs pointed in a friendly direction .

Would putting it in a little tub filled with degreaser be better? It could really get in there that way.

I don't have much experience with mountain shifters (other than old above-bar thumbies) but this is a pretty good site:

https://www.utahmountainbiking.com/fix/

https://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=117



May or may not help, as there's stuff for grip shifters in there too under the shifter install part.

Thanks so much for the links guys. I think that will help a lot. At least it gives me confidence to try again.

You get bonus points for that one.

I just didn't want the OP to spring for new cables and then end up having to buy new shifters (which come with new cables).

Ok... these pictures aren't the best, as I took them with my Blackjack II. Hopefully you'll be able to tell what I'm doing, though.



Here's our patient. An old 7 speed Shimano integrated shifter/brake lever.




First, remove this screw.




Then remove the barrel adjuster, and pull the plastic cover off.




Here I've circled the pawls that cause all of the problems.




With a small, pointy object (I'm using a Snap-On straight pick), remove the e-clip on the large pawl.




Here's the straight pick.




You can then slide the pawl down on the stud. If you aren't comfortable removing it completely, you can stop here, like I did. Then spray the hell out of both the pawl and stud with Speed Degreaser, or a similar product. WD-40 is rather weak, and won't do a good enough job. You need an actual solvent. If all else fails, use automotive brake cleaner. Then spray the pawl and stud with lube (I use T9) and re-install the e-clip.




Next, remove this bolt, if you have this type, and remove the shifter from the brake lever body. If not, you will likely have to blast the pawls from the bottom while moving them back and forth with the pick. If you don't have this type, you can stop here and re-assemble. Otherwise, continue on.




Remove this e-clip (if you have it)




You should now have only these parts removed...


(continued due to the 10 image limit....)

Pull the top plate off of the shifter. The top pawl will likely fall out, as it did here. Clean and lube as you did on the other pawl. You can take the bottom one off if you want, but I usually just blast it and lube it.




Put the pawls back on (the "hooks" should both be on the same side), re-install the e-clip and put the top plate back on. Re-attach the shifter to the brake lever body and try shifting. If everything seems to work, put the cover back on, screw in the barrel adjuster, and reinstall the shifter on the bike.

Very nicely done! I may have to bookmark this thread for future use.

Great post on cleaning the shifters. Brake fluid really does work better than WD40. I've never taken a set down as far as you did. It's nice to see it done. Keep up the good work.

Fantastic. I bought a pair of integrated shifters/brake levers because my LBS said these things can't be fixed. I now have a bike which needs the above repair done. I'll save the new levers for when I really need them and save myself about $35.

Maybe your LBS should come take classes from me....

This method has about a 90/10 success rate. There IS that 10% of shifters that just refuse to work again. Most of them, however, can be made to work as good as new.

Nice job, PlatyPius. I take a different approach, admittedly less thorough but far less time consuming.

I call the phenomenon "dead shifter syndrome." You see a lot of bikes with this problem when the cold weather hits, that old factory lube is especially problematic in the cold. I usually can bring them back to life with a can of WD-40 equipped with the little red straw that comes with it. Install the straw, and with the shifters still on the bike, find a place you can get inside the shifter pod with the straw. Often, moving the shift lever will create enough of an opening, all you have to do is get inside with the straw somewhere.

Then, let 'er rip with the WD-40. Flush that sucker until you've got WD-40 coming out at every seam and gap on the shifter pod. Take a moment to work the shift levers, both upshifting and downshifting. Repeat as necessary. They'll more often than not come back to life within 30 seconds.

The WD-40 is mostly solvent, and will dillute and spread the thinned factory lube around enough that you're "re-lubing" enough as it is. I've got shifters that had this problem years ago, flushed them out like this, and they're still going strong. YMMV-

The problem with overhauling shifters worth $15 new is that the cost of overhauling exceeds that amount by at least 2x.

I've done this overhaul once, and it's really crazy what was once grease becomes something closer to unfiltered honey. It's true that replacing it would be cheaper, but taking things that are "broken", doing some cleaning/greasing, and fixing them feels pretty great.