Lubing cables
 

How do you get the lub into the cable housing...
Does someone make a small needle injector for this purpose..
My wifes diabetes needles are too small....
Thanks
Mac

Yeah, google for "cable luber," it's a useful tool. Tips:

1. wear protective eyewear. Sometimes they backfire.

2. grab the cable luber with a rag, because they can lose quite a bit of lube and make a mess.

3. when lubing a cable on or near a disc brake, take all necessary measures to avoid even the slightest oil contamination of the disc rotor (remove the wheel) and the brake pads (remove them or wrap the entire caliper in a rag or something).


Furthermore, lubing a cable that already has contamination or corrosion may not help much.

Drip lube into one end of the housing, one drop at a time. When it comes out the other end, your done. Let the excess drip out.
Or put a light coat of grease on the cable before you put it in.
Or use lined housing.

does lined housing not need lub..
I noticed that one of the cables [inter] had a lining on the wire ....Do they need lub?
Thanks
Mac

Modern, lined cables usually do not require lubrication. Here's what Sheldon Brown said:
Cable Lubrication
In the old days, before the development of plastic-lined housing, it was necessary to coat the inner cable with light grease or heavy oil.

Modern plastic-lined cables have made the use of grease inappropriate, because the viscosity of the grease makes for sluggish cable movement. This is a more critical concern with modern brake and gear systems that use weaker return springs, and with indexed shifting in general.

Many manufacturers now recommend against using any lubrication on cables. It certainly should be avoided in the case of sealed systems such as Gore-Tex ®. Bicycles used in wet conditions, however, will often benefit by the application of a bit of oil, more as a rust-preventive than as a lubricant. The area of particular concern is the short loop of housing which carries the rear derailer cable around from the chainstay to the derailer.

Read more here:
http://sheldonbrown.com/cables.html

if they need lube at all, cables only need the lightest of lubes. Anything too heavy will make for sluggish return movement of the cables as it resists the light return springs in derailleurs and brakes. In index systems thick grease can mess up indexing.

Back when I was Campy's east coast service tech, I get a flurry of calls every fall as cooling temps stiffened the cable lube and indexing got sloppy. It was so consistent that I didn't have to think; someone would call and start to report a new indexing problem, and I'd interrupt and ask where they lived, sure enough it's up north and they were riding in the cold.

BTW- the east way to lube cables isn't to force lube into the housing, but instead wipe a thin film down the wire.

If you have slotted cable stops, you can slip the housing out of there, and lube/deburr the inner cable. To create slack you need to either disengage the QR for brakes or shift to biggest cog/chainring and WITHOUT pedaling release the cable with the shifter. The housing should have enough slack to slip out of the cable stop on the frame. If that doesn't do it, take the wheels off, and squeeze the brakes together with your hand or hold the derailleur up at the biggest cog/chainring with your free hand.

If you have low normal deraileurs, trade largest for smallest on the gears.

Middleburn Cable Oilers
 

I have had success with Middleburn Cable Oilers (google, of course). They are a little widget that fits in the middle of a length of cable outer. They have a hole the size of an aerosol straw. I use them on the pre-rear-derailleur cable loop on my mountain bikes - these last loops of cable get full of mud and seize up a lot. The benefit I get from the Cable Oiler is that I can use a can of aerosol (I use silicon lube fwiw) to blast out the mud. So - perhaps more a cleaning aid than a lubricator. hth

Have an unused WTB grease injection fitting, it takes up a section of housing..
Like above, was for really muddy bike use..
I just did a replacement, nice zinc treated wire, soldered the ends,
put a trifle of grease on to resist rusting, so common when housing is in a U .

Mixtes and like my Brompton route cables so water might collect in the low point.

If you do use the injector I posted above, aerosol Tri-Flow is OK. A light "wet" silicone aerosol lube would also be OK, such as this: http://www.amazon.com/3M-Automotive-.../dp/B0002KKVKC

Regarding whether plastic-lined housings eliminate the need for lube, I've seen untold numbers of corroded cables inside plastic-lined housings, and lean towards lubrication for that reason, as well as for improved cable response. In the end, cables are a maintenance item, of course.

I use stainless steel cables and I never gunk them up with lube.