SA8 Experts - Wierd Shifter Problem
 

I was out with my 11 year old son on the Downtubes today, when after a steep climb, he suddenly complained that he couldn't shift. It turned out that somehow the cable had popped out of it's receptacle in the shifter, and the barrel end (or whatever kind of end it is) had slipped round into the shifter. I couldn't work out how to get it back out! Pushing the cable back merely jammed the barrel end into a corner, and even with the barrel adjuster removed, it wouldn't come out of the shifter. Any ideas a) how to get it out, b) what type of end it has (in case I have to snip it), and c) how it popped out to begin with?

I think ya gotta pull the shifter off the bars and rethread the cable round the shifter innards. Has the lumpy-thing come off the end in the shifter?

Nope - if it had, no problem. The lumpy-thing is what's causing the cable to be stuck. It's not necessary to remove the shifter to rethread the cable, but I can't get the cable out. If I clipped it so that the lumpy-thing was on only a tiny bit of cable, I could probably shake it out, but then I'd need a new cable.

The barrel end of the cable in the shifter may be partially dislodged, twisted and stuck in its mounting socket and when you are pushing on the cable, it is cable being pushed back into the shifter and not the barrel. Perhaps a manipulating paper clip through the adjuster to dislodge the barrel from the socket will free it.

That's a good idea. It's not stuck in the mounting socket - it's completely out of that, and down in the base of the shifter. It has to go round a pretty steep corner to get back up to where I need it, but there's a chance that a paper clip might push it the right way. I'll give it a try.