My Zwift bike has old Sora shifters, 3400s I think with the little thumb button on the inside.
This morning the rear shifter cable snapped somewhere inside the shifter, so put a stop to any Zwift action for the moment. I had a play around with it earlier but can't see any way to get the broken end of cable out.
To do this I need to click the shifter into the small cog position, but when I press the button the ratchet doesn't move around so there is no way to access the cable. The button moves, but there is no click of the ratchet.
Are there any obvious ways to sort this out? I have had a bit of a poke around but nothing obvious to me. Any ideas would be gratefully received.
I decided to get a Zwift cog today so don't really need shifting once that arrives. But, I do need to hold the rear mech in a middle position which I was planning to do with a new gear cable, but I can't get that in until I get the other one out.
Alternative options would be to clamp the mech cable around a bottle boss in a fixed position or get some longer high/low screws and fix the mech position using those. But would rather sort the shifter if it's not a massive ballache.
Get the outer cable off.
Cut the rear mech inner cable leaving about 6" between the end and the shifter.
If you can completely remove the rubber hood, that'll help with access too (although they can be a right **** to get back on!)
You should then be able to wiggle the end around enough to be able to change down to the "smallest cog" position at which point the broken end should slide out. It may need a very fine metal pick to snag and remove any bits of frayed cable that may be left behind.
Some Shimano shifters are renowned for this, it's to do with how the cable bends and exits the shifter unit and the various bits of internal housing it rubs along the way.
Cheers @crazy-legs but there's no visible rear mech inner cable to cut. It snapped inside the shifter somewhere. So after removing the outer, the majority of the inner just fell away from the shifter at the exit hole.
There is no visible remnant, just a short portion stuck right inside the shifter. I think it is this piece preventing the ratchet functioning.
Ah.
Yes, that's going to involve the metal pick and some patience!
It's a good idea to wear goggles if you're peering into the shifter body, those tiny thin metal shards can fire out of there if you catch them at an angle.
I was told to slightly bend and sharpen a spoke to make a time to line the end out. It worked
Cheers chaps. I'll have to have a proper poke around at some point but to be honest it just looked like an inaccessible assortment of tightly packed bits. There was no visible sign of any cable and I don't really understand how it will come out if I can't get access to the hole that it goes in.
It might be better to just buy a shifter off eBay or lock the mech out another way.
You'll be poking about. TBH, easily fixable, but don't leave cables long again in STI shifters.
You'll be poking about. TBH, easily fixable, but don't leave cables long again in STI shifters.
Great. Easily fixable. How?
Just poking around and trying to tease out the bit of cable that I can't see? To be honest if it's more than 30 mins of arsing about I'll just try to fix the mech in place with longer limit screws.
These were renowned for this sort of aggro. The later ones have a little trapdoor to aid removal. I had a cable break in the shifter on my tourer last year whilst a few miles from home. First time ever. I remembered the tales of woe and was not looking forwards to sorting it - after riding home in the smallest sprocket. It took 5 mins to change once I found the magic trapdoor.
Not helpful to your plight I know...
I had this in my ultegra shifter so might be slightly different. Going slightly from memory here but to find the bit of broken cable I had to click the release all the way to the highest (smallest) gear position. As there's no cable pulling it I had to use a metal pick to push on the little ratchet wheel simulating cable tension, then it clicked round. That gave access to the broken end of the cable and then it was a case of going at it with the pick to remove all of the frayed cable shards. Good luck!
And thanks for the reminder to check mine, buggered if I'm doing that job again.
On some Shimano shifters there is also a little plastic panel underneath that you can remove by undoing a screw.
Could try flushing with WD40 or something if it's really stuck
Regarding removing and replacing hoods, if you use some IPA hand sanitizer it really helps get them back on
If you resort to spacing the mech - there’s no need to mess with limit screws - use an old cable and put it through the cable entry and attach it in the normal way with the bolt - but unlike “normal”, push the mech across to the required position and cinch the cable there - you can use the cable adjuster to fine tune from there -
if you don’t have an old cable (with the nipple intact) then you could use your old broken one but tie a tight knot in it -
Just to update....
No trapdoor on this shifter, so no easy way to get the cable out.
I tried the pick method to get the ratchet wheel turning & enable access of the cable, but I couldn't really get it to work. I am not going to lie, it wasn't exactly clear to me what parts were what within the assembly & nothing I did made any difference. I was hoping to find an exploded diagram online, but nothing with enough detail.
In the end I figured it was a pointless exercise.
The requirement to remove the cable was just to put a new one in to allow me to set the mech in a fixed position (for the Zwift Cog/Click). I ended up using two M4x20 cap head screws that I already had to lock the mech into position. It ain't going nowhere and is unlikely to fail again like a cable could do, so in reality a better solution for my Zwift bike.
I've not got the click/cog up & running but not actually tried it out in anger. Hopefully it works OK on my Elite Direto. I have heard mixed reviews about running virtual shifting on Elite trainers.
I appreciate all of the comments & suggestions to try & help get me back on track 👍
I had to upgrade the firmware on my Elite Diret X to work with the Swift cog. See here:
I had to upgrade the firmware on my Elite Diret X to work with the Swift cog.
Yep. I have done that and it seems to function as it should.
My comment was more to do with things I have read about the way the Elite trainers work not being great at making the most of the virtual gear system. But that might just be from reviewers who try all the different options and are able to compare and contrast. I won't have another viewpoint as I just have the one trainer.
