4/21/14 4:09 PM

Anyone have a 9-Speed Dura-Ace or Ultegra shifter that they don't need and want to sell? Mine has given up the ghost and doesn't shift down anymore.

Wheels

4/21/14 4:16 PM

Have you done the WD40 cleanse?

4/21/14 4:32 PM

It's not that it won't move, it's that it won't catch on the down shift. Upshifting (low-to-higher gearing) is less an issue.

4/21/14 6:17 PM

I have a pair of Ultegra 9s shifters that I retired recently. They hadn't seen all that much use and still work ok. If you let me have your address I'll send them along for nothing...

nick DOT payne AT internode DOT on DOT net

4/21/14 6:27 PM

Any time that either lever of either shifter fails to "catch", there is the possibility of a gummed pawl pivot, especially if the shifter has been sitting for some time and/or if the shifter is cold.

Warming the shifter and then actuating the ailing lever very slowly is the usual diagnostic for the gumming condition, as the gummed shifter usually responds favorably to warmth and a slower movement of the lever.

4/22/14 2:22 AM

The 9s DA and Ultegra STI are a lot different size FWIW. The DAs are notably smaller. An effort to make lighter perhaps.

I would flush it with WD-40, and wrap a rag and allow a drip over night once it responds. Then flood it with tri-flo a few times over the next few weeks.


I gotta try the warming trick before my next flood.

Last edited by Sparky on 4/22/14 1:04 PM; edited 1 time in total

4/22/14 7:50 AM

I will try the WD-40 flush, but am not confident. If that doesn't work, Nick, I gladly take you up on your offer.

Wheels

4/22/14 8:06 AM

In my limited experience (bikes belonging to friends--I'm strictly a DT guy right now), the flush works best when the bike is in a work stand, front end aimed down at a 45-degree angle with the levers over a bucket.

Use the WD40 "straw." Poke it "just" into the mechanism (the cylindrical container on the back of the brake lever (IIRC) that actual contains the gears & springs) and just blow a small can's worth of WD40 into that thing, until it's just pouring out (hence the bucket). Work the shifter while keeping tension on the cable, if you can, while you're flushing.

Let it sit overnight, then work it some more while while tensioning, then clean up and see how it works. If things now work properly, you might want to let the mechanism dry out for a day or two and then put some LIGHT lube into the machinery.

4/22/14 8:22 AM

and advice. Will try tonight.

4/22/14 10:10 AM

Usually it works so well, you will run around blasting every STI in your stash. ;)

Important to know WD-40 is not a lube, so do not leave it at that even though it may shift well again.

Letting it all drip out an dry up so new quality lube can get in the mechanism is key.

Sorry if redundant.

Last edited by Sparky on 4/22/14 1:03 PM; edited 1 time in total

4/22/14 11:10 AM

Let me know we''ll go for a ride over the the CRCH (Charles River Coffee House):





This is SUCH an occasion, I'll buy!

4/22/14 1:09 PM

Worth a mention the experience I had recently.

9 Speed XT Rapid fire STI on the Gary 29 that landed here late last year.

Front would not catch to climb up to the big ring, no not a 2x/3x version which they do make. The right would not work every few times, also thumb lever.

Flush and Tri-flow. Worked on one ride. Took them apart, spotless inside on both, no wear I could detect.

Closed then up thinking I would order some shifters, and got an idea when I saw the White Grease spray can I use for the garage door pulleys/wheels.

WTF, flooded them, sopped up the drippings, work perfectly ever since. This is the lithium suspended white spray can stuff. May be onto something....

4/22/14 5:37 PM

Sprayed the WD40 in the shifter. Lot's black crud came out. Shifter seemed to grab the gear now. Will see tomorrow during a real ride.

Thanks for the advice and tutorial.

Wheels

4/22/14 7:06 PM

Now that you have flushed out the gunk, be sure to add some fresh lube. TriFlow works well IME but so do many other things. The thin oil left when the WD-40 solvent evaporates is not enough IMO.

4/22/14 7:12 PM

Don't lube it yet. Let the solvent/lube drain out at least overnight, then lube it with something light.

4/22/14 8:47 PM

Boeshield is my favourite for cleaning/lubricating STI shifters.

4/23/14 7:52 AM

Maybe use some Slick Willy???? :)

4/23/14 9:18 AM

Slick Willy. I'll hit it with some Slick-N-Dry.

4/23/14 11:14 AM

Now that I think about it, telling Wheels to use Tri-Flo is kind of funny... ;)

4/23/14 3:20 PM

Hopefully, Wheels and anybody else considering "flushing" their STI's will heed Andy's advice.

If the bike that the shifters may be attached to isn't pointing downhill, the spray generally ends up under the hoods, where it allows movement with resultant hood stretching, and further looseness. It can be messy!

Alternately, one can remove the levers, then the hoods, during a re-tape of the bars, or simply loosen the bar clamp and rotate the bars into more of a "downhill" stance.

And I have a question; how long, really, does it take for WD40 to reduce itself so as to encourage any subsequent lube to penetrate those pesky, close-tolerance, annular (and long) pawl pivot surfaces?
I would think it might take literally weeks, or longer.

I've used this product in recent years, seems to penetrate aggressively, is not so solvent-diluted, foams nicely to access hidden recesses, and does not thicken to the extent that Tri-Flow does after some months/years.


And I find what looks like this stuff inside many gummed shifters that I have worked on, but I never know if it was added to a gummed shifter that was never fully freed up initially. My semi-recent Trek Fuel MTB purchase had me going into the shifters as the weather cooled, and I found the white grease had been added. Luckily with those (MTB Rapidfire shifters) the covers can be taken off and the pawls themselved can be flooded with oil and wiggled into freedom of movement with needlenose pliers or even a screwdriver. A soldering iron can even be used to apply heat locally to the pawls, which accelerates the penetrating/loosening process greatly.
Too bad that removing road STI's dust shilds seems to always break the shield!


Finally, while on the subject of salvaging contaminated bike gear with aerosols, there's this stuff, used with the kinked inner cable to "scrub" and blast out any friction-causing detritus from cable housings. Followed up with a blast of air and either the pictured GripShift silicone/Teflon lube (or Shimano's SP41 silicone cable grease) on the shifter's inner wire:

4/23/14 3:54 PM

I use CRC Power Lube and have never had to re-lube a set of flushed shifters. One set of DA 7800 shifters is still going strong and has never missed a shift since I flushed it about three years ago.

4/23/14 4:53 PM

Good to know, since not all of these products are available in everyone's locale.

One thing I have noticed is that Dura Ace STI shifters generally seem to resist gumming better than their lesser ones.

I figure perhaps stiffer pawl return springs or a superior lubricant in the D-A units(?).

4/23/14 5:41 PM

Full disclosure, the DA 7800 shifters were never gummed up, but I thoroughly flushed them as they came to me well used.

"Thorough flush" means removing from bike, taking off hoods, flushing thoroughly with Super Lube until dripping out, spinning the shifters in a bag to make sure the lube is well distributed, wiping down, and actuating the right shifter about a hundred times.

4/23/14 7:01 PM

"Thorough flush" means removing from bike"

Mine never got that dirty [I think ;)] I think my 9 speed DA STIs got flushed twice in 13 years. And that bike got ridden rain or not. So maybe the DA STIs being less susceptible has some merit??

The 9 speed 6500s that came on the 2003 Klien I flushed, but looking at that bike it was apparent it was a PDX wet weather bike. Thankfully the wheels where not the originals. ;)

4/25/14 12:27 PM

Wheels, how are the shifters working after the flush? Did they come back, or are they still giving trouble?