Amesja

I'm not a big fan of using WD-40 as anything but a degreaser. It's a poor lubricant and actually serves as an anti-lubricant over time -degreasing and drying stuff that used to be lubed.

X-LinkedRider

Replace all cables/Housings.. See if they come back to life. Sounds like it's not returning cable tension properly. Just make sure everything is cleaned off and well lubricated. keep trying it for 3 days. I would only use WD40 to clean it, but make sure you dry and re lubricate afterwards or else you are just doing damage.

jeremyb

gosh, now I remember why I stopped reading this thread = jealousy

The MAX

Cables and housings have been removed, except for the cable still in the right shifter due to not being able to shift down.

wrk101

Fantastic find on the Torelli, whether the STI comes around or not.

X-LinkedRider

So the shifter itself is dead huh.

The MAX

Yeah we'll see. I'll try to revive them. Like wrk101 said, pretty decent score regardless.

IthaDan 

:confused: That's exactly the use that's being suggested here.

Amesja

No, it's not.

In a few weeks when the WD-40 evaporates the parts will be even drier and stucker than before.

IthaDan 

So then follow up by saying that a lubricant is also needed instead of being a wet blanket, stumping from the sidelines.

4Rings6Stars

I've resurrected at least a dozen Shimano STI shifters by blasting them with WD40 and they've gone on to live happy lives for many years and many miles.

Once they are moving freely, I hit them with some 3 in one.

Is there any other way to bring STI shifters back to life (sans rebuild)?

Amesja

Is this the 41 forum? I thought we were in C&V...

People don't typically act like this here.

IthaDan 

You didn't post anything constructive or instructive, rather your post was just another dissenting opinion, further increasing the parity of signal and noise with no backup nor alternate plan.

41 or not, there's nothing useful about posts like that and this place is full of them. Sorry to single you out, it's a large scale problem with BF that frustrates me and, I'm sure can empathize on this one, now that I've noticed it, I can't unsee it.

Amesja

Welcome to the ignore list Dan.

IthaDan 

Cool.

Bikedued

Carb cleaner followed by Tri flow is what I always use for stuck STI's. I've only had one set ever fail to respond, and it was under salt water in a hurricane, and allowed to sit for a couple of years! Tri flow is amazing stuff! It will free up even the most rusted spoke nipples.,,,,BD

chenghiz

Yes, using Triflow, which is a penetrating lubricant. Worked for me!

randyjawa 

Bikes have been flowing slowly for the past couple of months. Snow does that to the river of bicycles that flows through the landfill sites in Thunder Bay and surrounding area. I did, however, pick up a couple of nice bikes recently although only one came from the Dump. That one, a Velo Sport Alpin...

Upon returning home from finding the VS at the Dump, this near mint and I do mean near mint Executive Step Through was waiting for me in the back yard...

And, the next morning, Saturday, I place an add on Kijiji and an hour later I picked up this Favorit for $20...

Gravity Aided

Makes one wonder how a Favorit got to Thunder Bay , must have been an epic journey .

Grim

7 and 8 speed stuff I have had luck disassembling and cleaning. I have never had any real luck trying to flush them out especially with ignition drying agents (WD40).

LOTS of little parts. The main problems is the grease dries out in the pawls that engage the different cogs. Most of them you can get off once the lever is off the mechanism.
There is a guy that use to advertise on Ebay that has a fairly decent history of rebuilding them. I'm not having any luck finding a link to him at the moment.

Glennfordx4

We get a lot of bikes in with stuck STI's from sitting both road and MTB shifters ( although you can get to the pawls on most MTB shifters ), I use PB Blaster on them followed up with a light oil and so far everyone of them I have messed with I have gotten to work again. What I do is wrap a rag around the lever and just spray the crap out of it with the PB then I work them letting them snap back with my hands off of them ( you can also tap on them with a screwdriver handle to set up vibration ) a bunch of times and spray some more then let them sit for a little while and repeat, once they start to work I oil them up and keep moving them through the gear range just to make sure the oil gets in good then I install the cables and while in the repair stand I just keep going through the gears until it all is working smooth.

Glenn
Edit one step I forgot is after I soak it with PB and let it sit I hit the shifter assy with air and blow out as much as I can then I use oil.

fiataccompli

for clarification, wd40 is a great cleaner imho. interesting to hear of PB Blaster...I've used it on some stuff in the past but not shifters. it's a main lliner in my tool box for working on old cars. Even with pneumatic tools, a pre-soak with PB Blaster is standard fare for almost all steel-on steel disassembly for me. Not a fan of the smell though.

I've heard of WD40 cleaning and K&N filter oil to lube STIs. ...and, come to think of it, I've tried that also. I should probably invest in a large enough quantity of tri-flow, because I suppose if I could just dip the shifter in it for a day or two, I'd have cleaning & lubing all in one step.

OK...way off course. Sorry, don't have anything too cool as a recent save to post....

Amesja

In the clock business we call this flushing method the "dunk and swish" and it sometimes will work on a clock movement that has gotten stuck but often it's just a temporary fix. If there is any wear on the pivots or the lubrication isn't where it is supposed to be and/or is where it isn't supposed to be (will gather more dust/grit) it'll just go bad again sooner or later.

About the only thing that works long-term for highly-intricate technomancy like a mechanical clock or something like an STI shifter is to tear it down to individual components, find where the issue is, repair any issues found, and then relube & rebuild with the proper greases/oils.

Sorry for taking "pot shots" from the sidelines but this is just the plain truth. Hosing something down with WD-40 makes for great profits for the Rocket Chemical Company but rarely will fix anything in the long run -it's more than half Stoddard solvent which is just a very thin mineral spirit wash of hexane petrochem.

It's OK for blasting something "clean" (clean of any oil/lube that was supposed to be there too) but often does more damage than good -even if you add more real oil later you just end up with a goopy mess unless it is precision-delivered to the specific pivot points and pawls where it needs to be. If you don't add more real oil after the dunk & swish you end up with a dried-out mess sooner rather than later.

About the only thing I use WD-40 for is to spray down metal stuff before storage to help with combating surface rust. That's all is good for -the rest of the 499 uses are all marketing BS.

chenghiz

I don't know about the original question, but from what I understand Shimano STIs tend to bind up primarily because the grease used in them hardens up in the mechanism without regular use. That's why hitting it with a penetrating lube clears it back up and the mechanism continues to work with regular use.

Obviously if the problem is mechanical, lubing it is just a temporary and perhaps futile fix.

Amesja

+1

Wouldn't warming the shifter with a hair dryer carefully while working it through its motions help with loosening up old grease without washing a good portion of it it away like a solvent does? I've had good luck with this in the past with some things -yes, this works with clocks too sometimes when they are "over-wound." Not there is such a thing as "over-wound" but that's what a lot of people call it when a mainspring gets stuck after winding but it has nothing to do with over-winding it -it is a separate issue that happens to turn up when a clock is wound.