Rebuild old xtr shifter?
05-16-08, 01:35 PM
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Rebuild old xtr shifter?
Hey everyone. I'm not sure if this has been covered before, but nothing came up in a search.
I've got an old Schwinn Homegrown hardtail that needs a bit of TLC before I can go abuse it again. The XTR shifters (1999ish) are getting pretty sluggish, and in some cases I push the lever to shift up a chainring and I have to lean into it 2 or 3 times before it actually catches the cable and moves the derailer up. From what I can tell the derailers are working fine. I'm going to try replacing the cables/housing to see if that helps, but I wonder if the shifter pod itself needs to be taken apart, cleaned, re-lubed and reassembled. Might this help? Has anyone done this? I know that Shimano has technical doc's on their site with blowup diagrams- which should help, but any first hand advice would be appreciated. Prices on ebay are a bit more than I wanna sink into this bike right now. Oh yeah- and i'm not into the singlespeed scene, i just do not have the legs or lungs.
Thanks!
I've got an old Schwinn Homegrown hardtail that needs a bit of TLC before I can go abuse it again. The XTR shifters (1999ish) are getting pretty sluggish, and in some cases I push the lever to shift up a chainring and I have to lean into it 2 or 3 times before it actually catches the cable and moves the derailer up. From what I can tell the derailers are working fine. I'm going to try replacing the cables/housing to see if that helps, but I wonder if the shifter pod itself needs to be taken apart, cleaned, re-lubed and reassembled. Might this help? Has anyone done this? I know that Shimano has technical doc's on their site with blowup diagrams- which should help, but any first hand advice would be appreciated. Prices on ebay are a bit more than I wanna sink into this bike right now. Oh yeah- and i'm not into the singlespeed scene, i just do not have the legs or lungs.
Thanks!
05-16-08, 03:47 PM
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Seems to be a very common problem with Rapidfire shifters...someone posts about the same problem at least once a week...lol. The grease gets gummy after a while, you can often revive them by spraying/soaking them with WD-40 (or similar), blow them out if you have an air compressor available...work the levers around to make sure the lube gets into the mechanism...might have to repeat until they loosen up enough to work again. Make sure to relube them with something like tri-flow when you're done...
05-16-08, 05:47 PM
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Bikes: 2005 Jamis Satellite w/ 105/Ultegra, Motobecane Fantom Cross Fixed, 1999 Schwinn Homegrown Hardtail
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Thanks for the advice Kramnnim, sorry my question was redundant. I don't spend much time in this forum and I guess I should have searched for "rapidfire" instead of "xtr". Off to the store to get some WD-40.
