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I'm having real difficulties fitting a front XT mech. If I adjust the height so that the outer plate is just a couple of mm above the largest ring, the inner plate touches the middle ring. To get the inner plate to clear the middle ring, I have to move the mech so high that there is close to a cm gap between the large ring and the outer plate. What the heck am I missing?
If its useful its on a prince albert and the rings are 44/34/22 (not 100% sure its 22, but the other two are right).
is this with a cable in there?
you may fidn that with a cable it'll 'pull' the mech back towards the seattube enough to clear the inner ring - looking down from the top the outer plate on the mech should only just clear the chain when it's in the big ring.
34 middle is not standard.
eg I am running 9 speed shimano XT but I switched to a 42T outer and adjusted the clearance to suit. But then found the cage hits the 32T middle so I had to adjust the derailleur back to a 44T outer height and live with a slightly larger gap.
If you are running a 9 speed derailleur with a 34 middle you may need to lift it higher than the 44T outer needs. Or you could maybe try a 10 speed derailleur as that will work with a 24-32-42 so may well work fine with a 22-34-44 as it would seem the pivot/cage is sightly different to the 9 speed designed for 22-32-44. That's only a theory though, never tried it.
wwaswas: The cable seems to make no difference, moving it by hand or with cable (top pull) effect is the same.
andyl: Yep, beginning to think that its the middle ring that is wrong. Well the difference between the middle and largest. Grr.
It is the 34-44 issue.
Shimano clearly state you MUST have a 12T difference between middle and large rings....or you have the problem so carefully described.
Solution is go to 34-46/48 or 32-44 or a different f/mech.
I have this issue on a bike with 32-42 and solved it with a Deore mech...it was nearly 50g lighter too!
PaulD
Yep, nice one PaulD, your bang on. Just looked at the shimano docs, should have started there in the 1st place!