I am having a heck of a time getting my RD cable through a small hole in the fame. The cable goes in at the shifter and comes out down the chainstay. A solution would be to insert a very small tubing in the chainstay hole and then insert the RD wire in the tubing at the bottom bracket shell.

Where can I find this type of very small tubing? Is there a name for it? Is this clear?

Guy

Guess you dont' have a Klein ? Mine comes out the down tube near the bb. I had a some what unknown wrench change out my derailleur cables . Ask first if they are familiar with chaning internal cables. At this shop it took them all afternoon. I thought it would be a one hour job. I told him in advance it was internal. Still he charged me for an hour. It was his first. Not kidding you. He even once used a vacauum hose to try to suck the cable thru the housing.

Someone told me once about attaching a string/thin wire to the end of the housing BEFORE you pull it out of the frame. This is supposedly going to allow you to remove the housing and old cable, while at the same time pulling back through your "guide wire." Then, you do the opposite for reinstalling the new housing. I managed to replace an internal routed shifter line on a friends POS department store bike once, and I got lucky enough that just fishing it around for a few minutes yielded success. If I had known this trick that may or may not work ahead of time, I may have been inclined to try it. I don't know how you attach the guide string/wire to the housing that would allow it to pass through the frame hole, but I imagine it depends entirely on the size of the entry/exit holes. Thoughts?

[EDIT]
I seem to have misguided myself... In regards to the tube you are describing, I would check out the local hardware store in the section where they sell lengths of chain, cable, wire, beer bong tubing, etc. I see what you were asking now.

The hole is too small IMO to attached a wire to it. The housing should work. I just don't know where I can buy it or what to call it. Does anyone know what I am talking about?

GG

Back in the day cable housing came with teflon lining that was inserted in the outer housing versus being built in. Your looking for a piece of that inner teflon housing. Good luck.

Your best bet is get a fairly good sized magnet and place it just in front of the hole to guide the cable through. I was able to do my Aluminum Klein with bis kitchen magnet. Obviuosly you want to pre-measure the cable so you know its about to get there.

Jim

The rough cable end is hitting somthing. I would use a soldering iron, put on a little glob to make it into a smooth bulb, or some crazy glue. Wait for glue to harden of course.

That is an interesting idea but the bike in question is a steel Pinarello Montello '85 so the magnet may attract the cable to the chainstay! I have some of that small tubing installed on another bike. I'll snap a photo of it and post it tonight.

Guy

Thats even better. If the magnets strong enough to go through the metal it'll pull the the cable right to the hole!!

Ok, so you get the small tubing, then what? If you run it backwards through the hole you still need to get it out the other end....

If I find more of the small tube I would fish it from the RD hole to the BB shell (I took out the BB). At that point I would take the cable from the shifter which is now in the BB Shell and insert it into the small tubing which is also in the BB shell and presto. I could leave the small tubing in the bike or simply pull it out once the cable is through the hole.

Guy

Ok....I've gotta better picture now!!

When you get a chance post a few pics so I can see the cable routing setup.

Jim