Hi,

About a pint of GT85 today hasn't stopped my X-9 rear mech from sticking. If it's in 1st, it stays there if I click up the gears. It's not the cable sticking as there's a loop of free cable at the mech end and a small nudge to the mech makes it leap up to whatever gear is selected.

Once out of 1st, it'll work normally up to 8th then won't make the extra few mm across to select 9th unless I hammer up the cogs and momentum carries it into 9th.

I've hosed it with lube and worked it from one end of its range to the other repeatedly but it still sticks in 1st and 8th. Can anyone help?

Cheers,

Ian

take off the outer & clean or (better) replace it. Wipe down the inner too (or replace). It's "always" the cabling.

Do sram mechs have a b-tension screw? Fiddle with that a bit to move mech away from the big sprocket

Is the limit screw stopping it shifting into 1st? Wouldn't hold it there but wouldn't help.

i had a similar prob with an '08 sram x9 rear mech and did pretty much everything you have mentioned to try to cure the sticking. in the end i called the shop i got it from and they told me that apparently there were some mechs made where the pivot pins (or somesuch) were made too tight. i returned mine and it came back sorted.

Mine does it too, but usually at the end of a ride; especially after a bit of a break. I have assumed its cables fouling up but didnt look that way when washing today. Bike is quite new.only done a few hundred miles. I will check the B screw though. Post how you get on

mines a meta

could be the shifter, had that much bother with mine i threw them away and changed to xt

i've been having this exact same issue! (mine is an X5 though)
i discovered the mech was actually on wrong. It's the little tab that the B-tension screw nestles against that was rotated round the wrong way. So I'm hoping that fixing that will cure it.

Take the chain off, put it in top (lowest tension) and hold the cage forward in the position it would be in when the chain is on. Now push the mech body towards the bigger sprocket, as it would move when changing, then let go. Does it spring back?

I tried altering the B-tension screw, but then i noticed that it was sort of not having any effect because it wasn't nestling against anything, I thought hang on a minute, this is wrong, so I took it off and put it back on with that little cam-shaped gubbins the other way round, and the mech now sits lower than it was – it was almost high up enough to foul the frame before.

Now when i do the above test again, it passes – it springs back much more readily. Haven't trail-tested it but hopefully that will cure it.

maybe getting it oriented wrong is only possible with sram mechs?

mine used to do this some time ago and it was because the endstop screw was just too tight so when you pushed the lever into 1st gear it jammed it up against the screw. Just put the bike in 1st then see if the endstop screw is very tight or you can back it of a quarter turn.

C

Is it a med cage mech? If so, you may be taking it beyond its limit to try and get it onto that gear.

I've got an x9(about 9 months old) which does exactly the same ! replaced the cable,lever and lubed and adjusted the mech yet still sticks in 1st and 9th? works perfectly in-between and is definitely not bent. PITA

Had an X-9 that did the same thing.
Checked everything.
With no cable attached, it was still tight in 1st gear.
Whilst riding a demo Orange Crush with X-9 rear mech, noticed that it was doing the same.
Mentioned it to the guy on the demo day.
He said that they had a few mechs that were doing it,and had them changed.
Spoke to Chain Reaction(where I got it from)they said they had no reports of a faulty batch.
It cured itself in the end, after about 5 months.

Its nothing to do with the shifter or the cable tension and its not " "always" the cabling".

Some jam up at the extremes.They can do it from brand new and some will do it with age.sram know about it..and if sram say they dont know about it,then their reps dont give any feedback.

Thanks for all the help.

It's a long cage mech, bought secondhand on eBay but seems to have had an easy life. It's definitely not the shifters or cable because there's a big, flappy bit of loose inner at the mech when the shifter's all the way up to 9th and the mech's still sticking in 1st, so the shifter's actually shoving cable through the outer but the mech's not taking it up.

In 8th, I can flick the shifter to 9th then move the mech to 9th manually. If I push it back to 8th, it sticks there and doesn't go back out.

I'm not sure what I can do if it's a manufacturing error, except call on the good will of SRAM's UK importer. But I'll remove, lube, refit and check the B-screw and other adjustments first to discount any ham-fisted fitting on my part.

Cheers all!

Ian

Had this happen to me and after removing the mech it was clear the pivots were sticking at both limits. Soaked the pins and other moving pieces with Purple Extreme and everything starting working properly so I guess the problem is a combination of the cold and type of lubrication applied.

GT85 is not a penetrating lubricant more a water repelant which would explain why it failed to work for the OP.

Same here with a x9.

It would even stick when the mech wasn't on the bike.

Got sent back to sram who sent out a new one.

New one arrived, I sold it along with the shifters and replaced with Shimano.

Try removing it from the bike and moving by hand to see if you can identify an a source of friction.

If it moves freely off the bike, then put it back on the bike (without attaching the cable) and see if it still moves freely (particularly main pivot/B tension area).

If it still moves freely then it must be the cable.

Good luck