QuangVuong

Googling around, I cannot find any guides for rebuilding any 105 shifters. So I thought I may as well make a guide when I took mine apart.

Got these 105(5500) shifters off eBay, and they were dirty as! The levers were scratched up and ugly, and the shifting was fine, but it didnt feel smooth.


Onto dismantling. Once the hoods are removed, you are faced with this panel which is on the inside part of the shifter(where your thumbs go). Just unscrew with a Phillips screwdriver. Inside is just the Flightdeck computer cable.


Use a 2mm allen key to remove the grub screw which holds the pivot on.


Use a small enought screw driver to push out the pivot. Now you can remove the lever from the body. Take care when removing the Flightdeck cable.


Get a flat head screwdriver or something of the sort to pry off the name plate.


Underneath this name plate is another screw. Remove with a Phillips, and then you can pull off that black part.


Next is a 8mm nut. Use an adjustable wrench, a 8mm wrench or a 8mm socket to remove. Theres dirt build up already, and I havent even reached the inside yet.


Flip the lever to the backside to locate a Phillips screw. Remove this screw. Watch out for the washer underneath. More dirt and grease build up. You now can pull off the lever. There is a round spring behind, and make sure this doesnt fly off somewhere(very low chance though).

QuangVuong

A 9mm nut is next. Use an adjustable wrench, a 9mm wrench or a 9mm socket to remove. Its surpsing that theres all this grease and dirt out here. The internal gears are the parts that need to be greased, not the outside parts. Note that the round spring will be reattached to the small slit at 7 oclock in the pic.


You can remove the black plate, the silver plastic body part(cable guide) underneath, and a grey ring which connects to the Flightdeck cable.


Now you have two choices, continue dismantling or you can dip it into some sort of degreaser. I chose to no go any further, as everything can be accessed at this point. I chucked it into petrol, and let it soak for a few mins. You can use a toothbrush or something similar to brush away the grease and dirt.




Now once the parts are clean, you can begin to grease the parts. There are only two areas which would need grease.
The bottom side of the shifter.


Hard to see, but its the top side. Lift up the pawl, and grease underneath.


Thats it! Now to rebuild do these steps backwards. Repeat for the other shifter if need be(right hand is slightly different, but it is mostly the same).

The end result after sanding and polishing.






Oh, and I will offer a service to rebuild STI levers. So far I have done the RX100, Sora(3300) and the 105 as above, but I am sure that I can get around to doing the others without too many problems. I will also gladly take in any broken shifters, or ones that do not work anymore. Please PM me if youre interested! However Im from Australia

QuangVuong

600 Guide is up!
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...%29-STI-Levers

Look out for the 5600 guide up soon!

VeloLove

Alright Quang, am about to do this. Do you know what keeps the name plate attached to the rest of the shifter? I wanna mak esure I don't screw it up when putting the thing back together.

dwmckee

I hope I never need this but am glad it is available!

upallnight

I know this post is over a year old, but no one ever answered his question. To get the face plate off, instead of prying from the top, you should pry from the bottom. The face plate is held on by tabs at the top and bottom. By prying at the bottom you are pivoting the face plate so that when the bottom is released from the tab it will just come off the top tab. There is less chance of marring the top of the face plate if you pry from the bottom. When you go to reinstall the face plate hook the top on the top tab and snap the bottom in place. Hope this help anyone that is repairing or cleaning their shifter.

Quantu

Hello. I have completely disassembled parts for 5500 (I know all the parts are there) but I can’t put it together. Your post is as close as I can get. Can anyone help here? I guess I just need a picture at least of a assembled shifters gears to figure out what am I doing wrong. Any help deeply appreciated.

KCT1986

Try doing a search for; Shimano 105 (SL-5500) STI lever Disassembly and Assembly Pictures

Can't figure out how to post a link.

Someone posted to a flickr account pic & directions. Best that I've seen about this so far.

Edit: forgot to mention that clicking on a photo will give you text that poster kindly added.

Quantu

Thanks. I tried this but most I have watched already and cannot find my model and they are all so different :/

Crankycrank

Possibly this one. Shimano 105 (SL-5500) STI lever Disassembly and Assembly Pictures | Flickr

KCT1986

Thanks for posting the link.

That is the one. Could not get the link to work.

Quantu

It’s still a headache but so much more doable now. Thank you for finding this! I searched for 3 days hi and lo for this.

Crankycrank