Replacing shimano lever blades

Had a silly crash today and bent one of my Zee lever blades badly – pretty surprised it didn’t snap.  I have an old lever with a broken reservoir cap that I’m going to try to swap the lever blade over from – seen a few posts on MTBR and Pinkbike saying it’s possible just a little fiddly in the reassembly step.  Also found the tech document with exploded diagram for my specific lever.

My question for anyone who has done this procedure: do I need to disconnect my current lever from the hose or can I do it while all connected?  Saving a few steps and a bleed would be nice.

Any tips to make reassembly easier would be good too.  I’ll probably dismantle and reassemble the old broken lever first as a test, might all make sense but might not.  Hopefully can fix this tomorrow morning and get a ride in.

Ta.

Possible while connected. Easy job – remove grub screw that locks the axle in place – drift out axle, then reverse to fit new lever. Seating the wee spring to prevent lever rattle is the only vaguely awkward bit.

Seating the wee spring to prevent lever rattle is the only vaguely awkward bit.

You’re not kidding.  Just had a trial run removing the blade from my spare old lever and reinstalling it.  Ended up making a little dowel the right size to hold the pieces together while inserting them into the lever body, then used the axle to push out that dowel.

Having done the above I can see how it’ll be no issue to do it on the bike.  Enough for tonight though, that’s a job for the morning.

Thanks.

Fixed the lever now 😊.  Pretty straightforward, just a bit fiddly.