My front shifter has always had a bit of trouble (really hard to move) when moving from 26 to 36, and recently started dropping the chain, when moving into the big (36) chainring.

Thinking it just needed adjusting, as both cable and FD are only around 400 miles old, I set about adjustment.

No matter what I do with the cable tension and lower limit set correctly, when in the 26 ring, I can’t get it to move to the 36 unless it over shifts. I can manually/slowly get the chain on the 36, but can’t adjust the high limit as there’s too much tension. If I try adjusting the high limit while on the 26, it won’t move up.

So I’m thinking one of two things: Cable routing isn’t right, or, FD isn’t compatible with the shifter. There isn’t any major bends in the routing that I think would have a big effect

The shifter is a M6000, FD is Deore XT – not sure which one. Pics below

Everything worked fine until I swapped frames, and had to change the FD, original was a clamp on M6000. But I needed a direct mount + adapter because of the dropper post getting in the way.

Anyway, here’s the pics

Pics aren’t showing for me, but first question would be does the FD move freely and through the full range of movement when you disconnect the cable?

Yeah, full range, and it’ll move when connected, as long as the tension is backed right off on the high limit screw. But it will throw the chain off, and by then the tension is too much to turn the H screw

Pics re-hosted

Edit: It’s probably an older model FD, it was only £8 last August

You need to clamp the cable the other side of the pinch bolt.

That’ll give more leverage so less effort and less travel.

@boriselbrus – very good point, exactly what I was looking at

Cheers, I’ll give that a go and report back    *thumb up smiley*

http://si.shimano.com/pdfs/dm/DM-FD0003-06-ENG.pdf

Page 34

Good tip, that.
Also, I can’t see well from the angle of your pic, but the FD may be quite high above your outer chain ring, giving a large gap for the chain to come off – can you move the FD down to reduce the gap? (may be the pic angle rather than an actual problem) .

Good news/bad news.

That rounded bit, to the upper right of the bolt………there’s a slot under it           yay!!!!!!!

The cable has been shredded under the pinch bolt, new one needed, will try tomorrow 🙁

Page 34

aah, instructions 😀

Also, I can’t see well from the angle of your pic, but the FD may be quite high above your outer chain ring, giving a large gap for the chain to come off – can you move the FD down to reduce the gap? (may be the pic angle rather than an actual problem) .

A little bit of both I think. I’ll see if there’s room for movement when I get the new cable

Cheers all

Route the cable like this and you should be ok.

You want the outer cage of fd to be about 1.5 – 2.0mm above the highest outer chain ring tooth.

Finally sorted out, phew.

Checklist done as follows

Insert new cable, check height, alignment, movement. of FD – Adjusted where necessary, dropped approx 2mm

Route cable correctly (as per dove 1’s very helpful photo)

Clamp cable, with tension “hand tight”, set lower limit (while in 26F – 36R)

Although setting the H limit was a little unconventional.

Once I got it shifting to the 36, there was still too much tension to move the FD inwards using the H screw. So I had to drop it into the 26, half a turn on the H screw, then shift back to 36 to check. Repeat, repeat etc etc

Anyway, all’s well that ends well eh?

Cheers everyone, I was right on the point of buying a 1×12 groupset 😀

Glad you got it sorted 👍

Good you’ve got it sorted but, if you can, I’d recommend the “side-swing” front mechs. They are much smoother to use, less effort and you can use your bottle cage bolts to get a nice cable run with no tight bend.