[sodade]

I have a problem with the rear LX shifter on a bike I bought for my wife. When pushing the trigger for some of the 8 shifts (9spd), there is a lot of throw before it engages. It seems to be more prevalent in the last couple shifts, where it takes almost the whole throw before it shifts.

I changed out the cables/housing, but the problem seems to be in the guts of the shifter. Has anyone else had/solved this problem?

 

[Jm.]

The little pawl springs that cause the pawls to go into the detents inside of the shifter are gummed up. The grease that originally made them work smoothly has gummed up and is not preventing the spring from operating correctly. This is most common with bikes that have been sitting for a few years and have not been used much. Eventually the spring becomes so gummed up that you can try to shift through the entire range and nothing happens at all. The fix is to open it up and spray carb cleaner in there on the pawl springs and then work them back and forth untill they move freely. Then put in some sort of good dry lube to keep it all working well. Ocasionally they are gummed up so bad that we just have to junk the shifter, but that is pretty rare. I fix this problem pretty regularly.

 

[Fuelish]

. Has anyone else had/solved this problem?

Yup, had exactly that problem on a very old set of LX 7-speed shifters. Guy at my LBS has NOS shifters he could've sold me, but he recommended squirting TriFlow (not the spray, but liquid form with little plastic tube for getting into narrow areas) and squirting that all up inside the shifter (remove cable from cable stops and squirt in there liberally) work the shifter up and down through the range several times, repeat, repeat.....I put a newspaper down under the area in case of drips, left it sit for a few hours, and Voila' !!! - shifter worked like new (well, as I recall, anyway - it's probably 10 years old...LOL) and the best part was, I already had the TriFlow (MMmmmmm, I love the real simulated banana smell of TF ) and squirt tube at home. This shop is small, and doesn't stock much high end stuff (although they'll order anything), this guy swears by TriFlowing up Rapidfire shifters that seem to be dying, and all I can say is it worked for me . Made my wife happy, beings as it's her bike (my old one..heh)

 

[sodade]

The little pawl springs that cause the pawls to go into the detents inside of the shifter are gummed up. The grease that originally made them work smoothly has gummed up and is not preventing the spring from operating correctly. This is most common with bikes that have been sitting for a few years and have not been used much. Eventually the spring becomes so gummed up that you can try to shift through the entire range and nothing happens at all. The fix is to open it up and spray carb cleaner in there on the pawl springs and then work them back and forth untill they move freely. Then put in some sort of good dry lube to keep it all working well. Ocasionally they are gummed up so bad that we just have to junk the shifter, but that is pretty rare. I fix this problem pretty regularly.

Thanks James - I am sure that you are right as this is a bike I bought off ebay from a college kid who never rode it...