I recently bought some Suntour Command Shifters and Freewheel and thought I give them a try.

I installed the like new Suntour 7 speed command shifters, new cable, new lined cable housing, old Suntour XC LTD deraileur (previously on another accushift bike), Like new Suntour 6 speed accushift freewheel, like new chain.

The indexing just would not work. I could get to shift fine on the outside few cogs but not the inside or the other way around but not all cogs. Then I realized I put on the wrong freewheel (6 speed). I replaced it with a 7 speed suntour winner pro freewheel. The indexing was even worse. So I figured maybe the deraileur was bad so I tried a like new Suntour α 2000 derailleur. Still the same. (I tried both freewheels) as a last resort I put on a shimano 6 speed HG freewheel. now it is shifting better. Not perfect but better than with the other 2 freewheels.

Any thoughts? Did Suntour change their later model accushift shifters to a different spacing? Am I missing something?

I will probably just call this one good as is but I sure would like to know what the deal is.

Dave.

If you don't have the cable tension adjusted perfectly, you are going to have shifting problems with just about any indexed system. Perhaps you already tinkered with this factor while you had the 7 speed winner freewheel on, but if not, that could be the problem.

Yes I did that. as I adjusted the tension to get it to shift properly from the smallest 3 or 4 cogs it would not shift into the larger cogs very well. If I adjusted the tension to get it to shift between larger cogs then it would not shift well on the smaller cogs. I know that suntour's accushift has different spacing between the larger and smaller cogs. I'm sure that there is either a mismatch that I am unaware of or a defective part some where. I am also wondering is there is a cable friction issue where the cable exits the shifters and bends to go under the bar tape. Although it does seems to pull smoothly. As it is right now it seems that the shifters like the even spacing of the Shimano freewheel better than the varied spacing of the Suntour freewheel. I just thought that was odd. It works fine in friction mode of course.

I have had a chance to ride it a little and I really like the shifters. To me they are "almost" as good as brifters.

Dave.

I think it must be a matter of it needing just the right freewheel then. I'll have to dig out my maintenance book and see if Frank Berto had any tips on that.

1. Use the newest of your Accushift RD's. Each has a two character date code stamped on the back. Date them at Vintage-trek.com. The 1988 and onwards design has an improved pulley pivot design that Suntour and Shimano fought over for years in patent court. It really helps indexing.

2. Use a NEW chain. Modern SRAM PC-850 chains ($12 at jensonusa.com) work fine.

3. For best results, the center to center distance of the rear axle to the RD mounting bolt MUST be within 24-28mm. You can flex up to 30mm. Beyond 30mm indexing goes to hell in a hand basket. With horizontal dropouts, you can often slide the rear wheel adequately forward to achieve the proper distance.

4. Use an Accushift (i.e. four slot removal tool) seven cog freewheel, because seven speed Accushift spacing is different than Shimano spacing:
--Accushift seven speed spacing center to center from the smallest cog inwards to the largest cog is 5.3mm, 5.3mm, 4.8mm/4.8/4.8/4.8/4.8mm,
--Shimano is a uniform 5.0mm across the cluster.

5. Use modern compressionless shift cable housing. An absolute must. MUST. No exceptions. Note that the rear loop of cable housing from the chainstay stop into the RD tension adjuster bolt / stop is shorter for Accushift than for Shimano because Accushift RD springs are far stronger than Shimano 'SLR' springs. Rear loop cable housing length should be 30cm (just shy of 1'), no longer.

6. Alpha and Alpha 2000 RD's and shifters are NOT compatible with other Acchushift components, only with other Alpha components.

7. Yellowjersey.org has a 30 page Suntour Accushift Tech manual you can download.

8. Be sure to adjust the RD 'B' screw properly. Adjust the RD High / Low stops. Adjust the front derailer High / Low stops. Once those adjustments have been made, put the chain on the largest rear cog/smallest front ring and then adjust the RD B screw so that 1-1/2 chain links separate the largest rear cog from the upper RD pulley.

I have several sets of Command Shifters running--you might say they were made for me. If you decide to go in another direction, perhaps you could PM me with regards to the future of yours.