I have a pair of Shimano 600 tri-color/Ultegra brifters that need to have the internals cleaned (de-gunked) and lubricated. I have seen some threads about doing this. A few of them recommend spraying the internals with WD-40 followed up with a spray of dry silicone lube. I haven't seen many brands labeled as a dry lubricant. In addition I have seen some teflon and cerflon spay lubricants. Can anyone recommend a specific brand or name of dry lube?

If there is a better method than the WD-40/silicone dry lube for cleaning and lubricating brifters please let me know. The caveat is that I do not want to disassemble them. Thanks.

You can put some mineral spirits in a trigger sprayer (old Windex bottle) and use that to flush. When dry lube with any of the Teflon dry lubes sold for chains, including Finish Line, Pedros, Dupont, and so on. All you want is a nice thin lube that dries completely or almost completely.

best dry lube I've found is Blaster brand T.D.L. ("The Dry Lube"). this sprays as a highly volatile aerosol that completely evaporates and leaves a teflon powder behind. shake thoroughly and shake often.

note: I've not tried it on bike parts yet, I use it on things like sliding doors, windows in my house, the rear seat latches on my station wagon, etc etc.

I wouldn't use WD40 for the cleaner in this case, as it leaves a light oil behind.

Hey Francis, what about using some of your Chain-L? I would think it would work very well being viscous enough to penetrate plus it would last longer than any of the others you mentioned and it seems as though it would gunk up less or at least no worse than the factory Shimano grease. I would be the guinea pig for this except I don't think my brifters are going to need a flushing/lube any time soon.

Even though I'd love to sell more, I suspect that Chain-L is too viscous for the light action mechanism of most shifters.

We air gun blow Phil oil into STI pods routeenly after a solvent then Triflowing of them. The shifters seem to work well for quite a while after this treatment. I do think that the thick Phil oil does thin out a bit with the rements of the other stuff that are left inside. I had always thought that the reasons why thick/sticky lube in a freewheel or cassette was a problem was due the the pawls sitting in a pocket with a lot of surface area between the pawl and the notch it pivots in. With shift pods the ratchet pawls are pretty much in the open without any close or surrounding surfaces. Andy.

For best results I'd recommend at least partial disassembly, if only separating the lever from the body with a 2mm allen key.

IMO your chain lube is just the thing. It wicks into the mechanism, and because it's so thick a lot of it can stay where you put it. It's not so thick it interferes with the hair-sprung pawls in my experience, but then it never freezes here.

Brifter-L ?

+1
I have used this dry lube on trigger shifters and brifters to restore ratcheting. As mentioned above it has, a solvent to soften the old grease and possibly flush some of it out and a light,thin, dry lubricant that won't attract dirt or gum up the small parts. Dupont makes a similar product that I have also used with successful ressults

Hmm... I just did this with a set of Shimano Dura Ace 7400 brifters. Started with a WD-40 soak overnight, then a dunk for a few minutes in Simple Green followed be thorough rinsing in hot water. I finishing them off with Chain-L. I squirted in way more than needed, from various opportunistic entry points, and it took a few days for the excess to drain away. So far so good, although I can't speak to the long-term effects.

There shouldn't be any long term problems. The only short term problem would be from excess viscosity, especially at low temps. If you're not having these issues during a Boston winter, then I'd guess Chain-L would be fine for the purposes.

Did you use any degreaser or cleaner prior to using Blaster TDL or did you just use TDL?

I'm waiting for the ultrasonic version. :

TDL works best on clean dry surfaces. I'd probably use electronics spray cleaner (aka contact cleaner. NOT the electric motor cleaner which has light oil in it) to 'rinse' away any residual WD40 ro whatever as it is harmless to most plastics (brakleen is an awesome degreaser but will melt many plastics).

IME WD40 is kind to paint and plastics, but not rubber.