brockd15 

I've got a set of 600 tricolor brifters that came on my Voyageur. They were only on there as brake levers because the right shifter doesn't work...because there's a stuck cable in there. I'm just starting to try and get it out, but before I tear it apart and can't put it back together, any suggestions?

The picture doesn't show it very well, but there are frayed cable strands in the hole and I can't see the head of the cable. Pulling on the strands with needle nose pliers does nothing.

ronp6

I managed to get one like that out. Make sure you are shifted to he highest gear so the end is fully exposed. I used avery sharp ice pick tapped in a bit from the top and levered it. It only had to move a bit and it came right out. The problem with mine and possibly yours is that it wouldn't shift to the eighth gear so it wasn't clear to come out and it wounldn't shift because it was sticking out a bit. If you take it apart you probably won't even be able use it as a brake lever.

roccobike

Been there, done that twice. Do not take the face plate off and unscrew the cover holding the spring. It buys you nothing and will not help you get to the stuck cable and head. Some of getting that cable out is a matter of luck. Sometimes you do have to take the lever apart, but that may take special tools to get inside that shifter. I'd seriously consider taking it to a LBS who knows how to work on one of those. (LBS Mechanics that can fix an STI are hard to find.) ronp6 recommendation sounds good to me.

brockd15 

I'll give that a shot. This one doesn't seem to move anywhere when I try to shift it, which I assume is because of the cable. I'll try to get some leverage on it.

Wogster

There are three possible scenarios you need to keep in mind:

1) The cable broke inside the shifter, an odd place for a cable to break, because it's fairly well protected inside the shifter....
2) The cable broke and some clueless gorilla trying to get it out, broke it off inside the shifter.
3) The shifter jammed and in trying to get the RD to work, they snapped off the cable inside the shifter.

Getting it out is helpful in the first case, may be helpful in the second and will cause lots of grief in the third. The cable should prevent shifting one way, but not the other, unfortunately it will be the wrong way. There is a guy who repairs them, I have not tried this so I can't vouch for the service, either way. It might be better to check this guy out as he should have the knowledge and tools to fix it, and get that cable out. If you use Facebook, try this link https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=100856572916

brockd15 

Wogsterca,
Thanks for the heads up on that guy. I don't want an otherwise good set of brifters to go to waste, so I may end up doing that if I can't make any progress. Speaking of, I haven't been able to make any progress. I tried getting some leverage on it but couldn't get anything to move.

treebound 

Sometimes the brifters get gunked up internally and need a liberal (dripping out) dousing with a plastic friendly penetrating lubricant to get the small parts and pawls doing their thing again.

The ParkTool home repair section might be of some help.

When brifters get to be C&V aged this will be a common problem.

miamijim

brock,

If you cant get the cable out your more than welcome to send it to me as I have extensive experience working on STI levers and I wont charge you anything. I cant do what the facebook guy can do but I'm not charging either. PM me if you decide to send it.

91MF

i have a set of 105s on the shelf with this exact problem only i was a dummy and took the faceplate off...

RobbieTunes

Yep, been there.
I managed to cut the cable off right at the end, and then worked it around until it fell out.

It most often ends up that way because it was loaded when the shifter was not fully "zeroed" out.