Recabling the bar end shifters on the tourer this afternoon and I find leaving it unloved for a couple of years may not have been the wisest move.

One of the little cable end nipples seems to have welded itself into the recess in the aluminium lever. Much sweating and time have joined the two together.

Am I wasting my time trying to free the cable end? I’ve tried soaking for a bit in GT85 but its getting no where near it as the lead(?) end seems to have molded itself fully into the little dinky hole.

At least I found out at home rather when trying to change a snapped cable somewhere miles away from anywhere. Bolleaux.

Sounds like a slow, careful drilling job. Preferably with a vice and maybe a pillar drill.

You mean to tell us you don’t grease them when fitting?

No I’ve never greased cable nipples ever, brake or gear. Mebbies that is the root of all evil? Dunt help me get it out now though does it?

Nope, but you could try penetrating oil and twisting the cable from the other side to try and help break it free.

Well I’ve just spent an informative couple of hours fixing the little bastard.

I left the lever in GT85 over night to soak the corrosion away and it made no difference. I then went at it with a drill and whilst it made a difference, it wasn’t a good one…

Then, inspiration. I had another lever who’s guts make a bid for freedom on the Way of the Roses a couple of years ago and being an habitual squirrel, I’d kept what was left.

So one bad lever (the one with the welded nipple) with good guts and one good lever with bad (missing) guts; hey presto!

If you’re gonna do this, settle in as it’s very involved and things need to be just so. Those with little patience or no mechanical sympathy need not apply.

Good lever/bad guts:

Escapees, the bits that always break on bar ends then fall out:

Bad lever/good guts (even though they looked shit they were complete and transferred over ok):

One good lever, all 9 gears 😀

And all the crap left:

Did you grease the cable nipple? 😉

Just for you Onza, I’ll put some grease on but this is the first time in ~30 years…. I think the issue is more neglect than prep. I last used this bike a couple of years ago for a very sweaty TransAm, brought it home, cleaned it then left it. I obviously didn’t lube the bar ends as much as I usually do.

Lessons learned; more GT85 is betterer and rebuilding those little beggars is fiddly. There’s a couple of gotchas in there for the unwary…