On the advice of EddyR, I'll post a few pics of something of a "barn find" here. The bike was advertised as having less than 75 miles. It almost certainly had more than that, but it WAS in excellent condition and at $270, I was happy with the price.

Since purchasing, I've removed and stored away the original brakes and hoods (didn't like the dirty yellow) along with the Shimano "Arrow" front and rear derailleurs. The new brake hoods are Cane Creek, the derailleurs are Shimano Claris (FD) and Caprio (RD). They seem to work just fine with the original 6-speed cluster, although I'll be replacing that original Suntour freewheel with a more hill-friendly, 14-28 Shimano version.

And the reason for this post: The previous owner appears to have over-tightened the downtube shifter mounts to the point that it broke the gray plastic spacer on the RD side. And the RD shifted with difficulty. So I loosened it a tad, and found out WHY he'd tightened it so. Unless the shifter is clamped down hard, the chain seems to want to gradually wander on down to the smallest cog. Which is pretty unsettling when standing on the pedals on a hard uphill grade. This is not the first time I've encountered this - my '88 Schwinn did the same. Anyway, so I've tightened the shifter back down on the Raleigh. On my old Nishiki, someone recommended a Suntour Power Shifter set. I'm so glad I took their advice - I found one on Ebay, put it on and it works perfectly, easily. Love it, and will probably try to find the same type for the Raleigh unless advised differently here. Thanks.

As you know from the "Show Me Your SuperCourse" thread, these are bikes that have become much loved by their owners. Mine was a green 1972 and provided that stable and sporty ride.

Your SC has the screwed up proprietary shifter bosses Shimano used in the mid 80's. Suntour shifters are not compatibly. The best option is to find the parts to repair the Golden Arrow shifters, or another set of Shimano shifters from the same time period.

:-) I'm there; sorry to post a duplicate thread, and thanks. DB

Here are a couple of photos of the OEM, Shimano, friction downtube shifters currently on the bike. I'd like to replace them with Suntour Power Shifters. It appears as if any mounting boss will disappear when I remove the original set - I've heard these are "proprietary shifters." Any tips on mounting the Suntour set? Thanks. DB