Please!

I'm trying to replace the gear cables on my bike and everything was going fine until I removed the old cable from the rear shifter. Now the shift paddles have stopped working. The shifter is stuck in the lowest position and I can't get the bottom paddle (ie the longer, thumb-operated one on the bottom used to shift up the cassette) to do anything. It'll move a bit but it doesn't engage and click. There should be 4 consecutive clicks to a full stroke but I'm not even getting the first one. Initial thought was a stuck pawl so I've sprayed degreaser through it, but still nothing.

I'm working on the principle that taking it apart will be shifter death as innumerable microscopic components spring free all over the shed…

Any advice? (it's an XT M760 shifter)

Cheers,
SC

is there a chunk of old cable left behind in there?

Don't think so.

The old cable came out cleanly.

FIXED!

Quite pleased with my lateral-thinking approach to problem solving here…

By loosening the three screws on the underside, first one at a time, then in pairs, I managed to get enough up & down movement to free up whatever was stuck and now it's back to working like new.

Pat on the back for Stuart!

yay! it's always a good feeling to fix an unfixable thing

You can actually take them apart fairly easily. The covers come off and the innards all stay together although I'll admit the first time I did it I was expecting an explosion of springs.