Bought a set of XT shifters last week the 9 speed of which, when the LBS tried to fit the cables and such… were discovered to be stuggling on the downshifts, making a distinct crunching sound before ceasing to work altogether. Am a tad miffed at the moment, especially as the shifters were described as working perfectly 🙁 🙁

Would just like to know whether there’s any chance of rescuing it, especially seeing as it looks fine.

It’d help a lot 🙄

Take off the cover to the internals, usually a small screw or allen key. Look to see if there is anything caught in the mechanism maybe a stray strand of cable from fraying.

I’ve had this before, worth ago, otherwise no, it sounds like the springs is damaged or being impeded.

flush it with some spray oil.then spray light grease in.
(while sitting on a white leather sofa wearing a linen suit)
S’all you can do.

Do what Brick said, stray cable strands can cause probs.
Which version of the shifter do you have? I know newer XTR-M970s are easier to get apart (and back together!) than older XTR-M952s, don’t know if the same is true of XTs