The photos below are of a long-cage Simplex SX610 that I received today from an ebay seller. It seems to be in good shape, with one major exception: the "lips" on the end of the mounting bolt are completely rounded off, evidently as a result of someone mistaking the spring tensioning fitting for the mounting bolt. As I hope the photos make clear, the flats are completely rounded off, though if you look closely you can see where they once were.


Oddly enough, the spring is not broken, and the derailleur stop plate is completely undamaged. My guess is that the ebay seller discarded the original stop plate and replaced it with an undamaged one (maybe innocently; as my previous post, "Humbled by Simplex" made clear, I'm no Simplex expert myself).


In a post of a year or so ago, headed something like "Real-world capacity of Simplex 6600," verktyg noted that its sometimes possible to repair that kind of damage with a taper punch; I'm also attaching a couple of photos from that post, with his annotations in red.


Does anyone know how that could work? My guess is that you position the stop plate over the remains of the lip on the bolt, then tap a taper punch into the hole to re-form the lips, with the plate acting something like a forming die. But I'm not sure how that could be done without destroying the interior threads in the bolt.


I'm undecided about whether to send the derailleur back to the seller. I got it at a reasonable price, and it's not like there are tons of them out there. If I could only find a trashed SX610 with an intact mounting bolt, I'd be in business. I supposed it's too much to hope that anyone here has one that they'd be willing to part with....

I have tried that fix more than once and failed; not saying it can't be done but it sure is delicate. Long cage Simplex is much harder to find, if there's not too much money in it I'd keep it and look for another derailleur for the bolt and stop plate (or for a cage swap).

[MENTION=52458]jonwvara[/MENTION], Simplex is certainly NOT simple!

I have to hand it to you, you are stubbornly persistent with your French!

Here's a photo of a Simplex mounting bolt offered by a French ebay seller. I've also attached a closeup of my damaged bolt from the same angle--the seller's photo is at the top; mine is at the bottom. The two seem to be pretty much identical, don't they?

Of course, there are so many ways for the new bolt not to fit by a few thousandths. On the other hand, it would have made sense for Simplex to figure their parts in such a way that one mounting bolt would have fit many different derailleurs. On the third hand, experience shows that "making sense" was never a high priority for Simplex.

The seller describes the bolt as a #3874 bolt for Prestige. That could mean almost anything. If I could find an exploded view of the long-cage SX610 that specified the number of the bolt I'd be in good shape; ditto if I could convince the seller to get out a micrometer and measure the various lengths and diameters of the bolt he has. Or I could just order it and hope for the best.

Does anyone have any light to shed on this question before I vaporize a perfectly good $20 bill?

I think it's the right bolt. Does he have more than one available?

Don't worry about the bolt with the stripped "ears". [MENTION=61614]verktyg[/MENTION] outlined this fix somewhere and I followed the directions.

I did it on a sx410, but should work on this one as well

Provided the stop plate (thing with the tab) is correct, assemble it all together on the hanger and hold the pivot bolt on the outside with an allen wrench. Rotate the pivot bolt and put tension on the spring, while tightening up the mounting bolt on the other side. On the 410, the correct tension point ended up with the spring hole being around 10:00.

I tried mashing out the tabs of the bolt, but that didn't work, quickly stripped back out. Just adding tension from the outside while assembling worked just fine. And I never looked back at buying a replacement mounting bolt

Give it a shot - I was surprised how well it worked.

Good Luck

Joee

I have the same problem with a bolt from a Super LJ. That one is definitely a different size than the Prestige and the SX410/610 (both of which I had on hand). I have another Super LJ to be a donor though I haven't checked to see if the bolt is the same; for all I know, Simplex might have changed the specs in different eras.

Neal, did it seem to you that the Prestige bolt was the same as the one for the SX610/410?


Of course, as you say, Simplex made the Prestige for a long time, and the specs may have moved all over the place.

After looking at blownup photos of the seller's bolt and my bolt side by side, I think you're right. I just ordered one of them. The beauty of it is that now I can blame you if the bolt doesn't fit.


According to the seller's listing, he had 4 bolts, so presumably still has 3, with four people watching. I found the listing by searching within ebay for "Simplex bolt."

My guess is based on the fact that the pivot bolt of the cheapest, delrin SX derailer is identical to the one in the SX610 (not the stop plate). I buy these for the pulley wheels, they're cheap but come with a claw most of the time. Very likely the same pivot bolt in the old Prestige as well.

I hope you're right. Realistically, I think I've got about a 50-50 chance.


I remember reading somewhere that surveys consistently find that even when people check the box that says they're absolutely certain about something, they're wrong about 20% of the time. I've been a lot less certain about things since I learned that.

Jon, here are some pics to compare:







The SX610 and Prestige bolts looks pretty darn close to me. Now you already shelled out that $20, but I'm glad to send you this Prestige bolt as the derailleur itself is fairly trashed. Let me know.

Your SX610 bolt seems to be rounded off in the same way that mine is. If all else fails, I may get in touch with you about trying the Prestige bolt.

UPDATE: The replacement bolt just arrived here from France, and it does fit. Nice! I'm back in business. All obscure-parts searches should end so well.

Damn, I wish I would've seen this sooner, [MENTION=52458]jonwvara[/MENTION] and I'm not sure how I missed. I totally could've donated what you need to the cause. I had someone ship a few complete and incomplete 410/610/810 after I bought some stuff and they heard I like French stuff. Sent them a few bucks for shipping, time and stuff. If you hit another snag...

Thanks, Francophile--I may take you up on that offer one of these days.


Funnily enough, while waiting around for the bolt, I found that the mid-cage SX-610 has surprising capacity. I have it set up on a 45-42-26 triplized Stronglight 93, with a 14-16-19-22-27 freewheel. The half-stepping would work better with a 46- or 47-tooth big ring, if I could find one, but it has plenty of capacity--with just enough chain to handle the big-big, I can use all but the 26-14 combination. So I may just hold the long-cage derailleur in reserve for now.


The 45-14 high would probably be on the low side for most around here, but I'm always happy to coast when I can't pedal.

BLEEP - posted this to the wrong thread..... sorry.

i - did get what you need?
i've got a SIMPLEX (SGDG? I think is on the back of the RD), but I buggered up the flats on the 'top' bolt that accepts the screw that comes through the derailleur hanger. I had another derailleur sitting on my bench, so I put that on the bike for now.
I think I can fix it, but if you can use, I'll start working on switching my TREK 420 to SHIMANO.
Lemme know. Thanks.
mark v.

https://goo.gl/photos/rK4RsFL7C7PXibZc6

Hi, this was long ago, but would you happen to have the name of the seller of the bolt?

Thanks

Alas, I don't remember and Ebay's purchase records for my account don't go back that far. But maybe try searching Ebay France for "Simplex bolt" (if you haven't already) and see what turns up. You might also try throwing in the "#3874" that was said to be the part number of the one I bought. N guarantee that the number actually means anything, but it worked in my case....

Thanks, do you still have the bike?

Well, the derailleur came to me by itself, but I'm pretty sure it's now on my 1974 Gitane TdF

Adding a photo of my "taper punch" repair of a Gran turismo stop plate with stripped-out flats at the hole.
A few whacks of a hammer and punch to move some metal over, followed by some dressing with a dainty jeweler's file, restored the proper shape and function:


I recall that in some cases, the position of some Simplex derailer's stop plate can be secured by simply tightening the back-side mounting bolt (once the stop plate has been forcibly rotated to a correct-tension position). Not as easy as merely turning an Allen wrench to adjust the tension, but does secure the needed B-pivot spring tension.
Something like a needle-nose Vise-Grip might be handy for this (to grip and turn the stop plate).

A recent post (that now I can't locate) about Simplex dropout derailleur hangers reminded me of a solution to this problem that I posted in the ISO thread a few months ago. Re-posting here to increase its visibility for anyone who is still futzing around with Simplex RD's.

Stripped Simplex hanger bolt fix