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...

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

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.

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.

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....

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.

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.

+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.

Got lucky on ebay the other day and picked up a bargain lot of 11 rolls of NOS faux suede bar wrap in a dark navy blue and what was described as orange-red. Turns out to be a little more of a brownish honey color. In fact, it looks like it might be a good match for a Brooks honey saddle.

Ive heated them and got them to work for a while and next cold snap they stuck again. Thats what drove me to trying my hand at taking it appart. The two 8s 105 SC and 8s RSX still work flawless. I used a white lithium grease when I assembled.

The 9 Speed I tried has an actually broken part or the shaft all the parts run on is bent. That one I can make function by holding the brake lever as I operate the small paddle to upshift. I have the exact same problem with a Ultegra 9 speed.
Like you pointed out the long term repair is disassemble and degrease.

I can't believe that taking apart a brifter would be any harder than a 365-day anniversary clock movement -especially the one brand that has the "suicide spring" that tends to explode like a grenade if it the leaf was broke even if it is properly let down with a spring winder/unwinder.

Actually one does and it works a lot of the time. Make sure to follow up with lubricant such as tri flow. YMMV

Let me bring this thread back on track here...

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/...d/bikes033.jpg

I snagged this off of craigslist last weekend while visiting my parents.
It is a 1995 Specialized Hardrock GSX
It is in pretty great condition with only a few chips in the paint and it rides great!
The skin-walls are the original Specialized Hardrock'R tires that came with it when new and have lots of tread left on them. They are pretty much brand new.
I brought it back to my parents and disassembled the whole thing and re-greased all of the bearings and put a set of used orange Wellgo clip-less pedals I picked up for $5
I think It's a pretty great bike all around and my next addition to it will be some Bio-pace chain-rings! Hate all you want, but I like Bio-pace.

Regarding treatment of broken STI's that CAN work:

I've had reasonable luck with blasting early 90's 600 with Liquid Wrench with Teflon. They still require the occasional re-spray however.

I've had better luck with 3 in 1 silicone spray lube. Opened up a sticky STI, as well as a Rapidfire Plus and so far there's been no degradation in shift quality or need for re-spray. The Rapidfire shifter is cheap cheap but if it weren't for the floppy thumbshifter they'd feel like XTR! I'm considering trying a quick blast on a few other Rapidfire shifters, just to give 'em a more positive feel. My year-old XT's are safe, but just.

Cant say I have worked on one of those or even know what it is LOL. Its not horrible as long as the take it apart and pay attention to the orientation of everything. I took eache part off cleaned it then layed it out the way it came off. Then reversed it to assemble. Same way I do Automatic transmissions.

Bwhahahaha!

Amesja,
You blocked the guy, why the incessant need to carry on a point that has nothing to do with the thread topic? There is a mechanic section to argue WD40 vs STI rebuild. I want to see bikes back from the dead or in purgatory. Lets save them all from everlasting damnation.

Thank you Mr. Fizzle

A "Made in the USSR" folding bike that followed me home, pretty cool but kind of heavy. All the writing is in cyrillic so I can't tell what brand or model.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...sc/file-26.jpg

Scott

fwiw i hit the squeaky wheels on my boys tricycle with some wd40 this morning, it pretty much silenced them which helped a lot with my hangover.

That's so 24 hours ago. Now it is you (and now me again since you yodeled me back to defend myself) that is not dropping it.

This is the last I will speak of it. Back to COTD please. Anyone else wants to rag on me for it will go straight to ignore too rather than me trying to defend myself yet again. If you don't like what I said above you are FREE to ignore me in the future too.

AMEN.

Hey big fella, I never asked you to drop it. And those wheels stopped squeaking approx 5hrs ago.

I like the way it smells too!:p

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c9...y/243ee03c.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c9...y/374345ae.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c9...y/7138b003.jpg

I picked up a few things. None of it works, but I'm sure it's an easy fix..

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...t/IMG_7229.jpg

Hey Roger, Is that a vintage Seiko diver?? I'll give you a six pack for it beer or WD40. Your choice.

I would love to find a cruiser that cool, looks like a nice & easy project.

Glenn