Bar-End Shifters- do they wear out?

RobertPerkins said:

I have a pair of Shimano 7-speed bar end shifters. I just replaced my
rear derailleur because it was worn. My cables are fine and move
freely. But, I am having problems with rear index shifting being off.
I suspect that my well-used (20K miles) bar-end shifters may have worn
out- though I am not sure how. Anyone know how to check the wear on
these? They do seem to have a bit of play when the cable tension is
slack- about 1/8 inch when the cable is slack. --Rob

The general failure mode for Shimano indexed bar end shifters is that
they loose the "click". Sometimes this is due to the square inner part
being installed with the wrong orientation. Other times, the click
just dies.

But for indexing being "off" I would suspect an incompatibility
between the new RD and the older barcons. I *thought* that nearly all
(non-10 speed) Shimano RDs would work with pretty much all Shimano
barcons so long as you are using a standard Shimano 7 or 8 speed
cassette. I would consult Sheldon Brown's site on this.

My first look though, would be on your basic set up and adjustment of
the cable and RD. Sounds to me that you installed a new RD cable and
now it's stretched out a bit. Remove all the slack in that cable as a
first step and then recheck all of the RD adjustments.

-- Dave
==============================================
"It is impossible, or not easy, to do noble acts
without the proper equipment."
Aristotle, <<Politics>>, 1323a-b, trans Jowett
==============================================

pinnah said:

But for indexing being "off" I would suspect an incompatibility
between the new RD and the older barcons. I *thought* that nearly all
(non-10 speed) Shimano RDs would work with pretty much all Shimano
barcons so long as you are using a standard Shimano 7 or 8 speed
cassette. I would consult Sheldon Brown's site on this.

Oops, I'm being sloppy!!

My understanding is that 7 and 8 speed barcons will work with nearly
all Shimano RD, so long as you are using 7 or 8 cassettes. 9 Speed
barcons need to be matched with 9 speed cassettes. But again, I
thought that the RDs can be used across them all. I could be wrong on
this.

-- Dave
==============================================
"It is impossible, or not easy, to do noble acts
without the proper equipment."
Aristotle, <<Politics>>, 1323a-b, trans Jowett
==============================================

In article <[email hidden]>,

RobertPerkins said:

I have a pair of Shimano 7-speed bar end shifters. I just replaced my
rear derailleur because it was worn. My cables are fine and move
freely. But, I am having problems with rear index shifting being off.
I suspect that my well-used (20K miles) bar-end shifters may have worn
out- though I am not sure how. Anyone know how to check the wear on
these? They do seem to have a bit of play when the cable tension is
slack- about 1/8 inch when the cable is slack. --Rob

I had a pair that felt "crunchy" and imprecise. They didn't actually
fail, but I replaced them. I had another right shifter that actually
failed (the detent ring broke) so that one had to be replaced. As long
as the shifter feels solid and solidly snaps in to the shifter detents,
I would look to areas other than the shifter for your problem.

--
Mike DeMicco <[email hidden]>

"pinnah" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

pinnah said:

But for indexing being "off" I would suspect an incompatibility
between the new RD and the older barcons. I *thought* that nearly all
(non-10 speed) Shimano RDs would work with pretty much all Shimano
barcons so long as you are using a standard Shimano 7 or 8 speed
cassette. I would consult Sheldon Brown's site on this.

Oops, I'm being sloppy!!

My understanding is that 7 and 8 speed barcons will work with nearly
all Shimano RD, so long as you are using 7 or 8 cassettes. 9 Speed
barcons need to be matched with 9 speed cassettes. But again, I
thought that the RDs can be used across them all. I could be wrong on
this.

-- Dave

This is true for *most* combinations, a Dura-Ace 8-speed rear is an example
of a combination that wouldn't work with the older shifters.
There are just a few odd combos that won't work, the above being one.

I run a new XT 9-speed rear derailleur with my old 7-speed bar-ends on my
touring bike, never had a problem whatsoever.

-pete

It's not incompatability, I recently dumped my brifters and connected my
mid 90's bar-cons to a brand new LX mech. and the system works fine.

I believe they work by a small ball bearing that fits into indentations,
these would wear out in the manner you're describing.

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RobertPerkins said:

I have a pair of Shimano 7-speed bar end shifters. I just replaced my
rear derailleur because it was worn. My cables are fine and move
freely. But, I am having problems with rear index shifting being off.
I suspect that my well-used (20K miles) bar-end shifters may have worn
out- though I am not sure how. Anyone know how to check the wear on
these? They do seem to have a bit of play when the cable tension is
slack- about 1/8 inch when the cable is slack. --Rob

First, 20k isn't that old and if they click and the d ring has the
shifter set all the way to 'index'...I'll bet it's something
else...inner wire, housing, below BB guide. I've only seen 2 pair of
himano index barends fail.

Which RD? and which model barends-If DA, that may have something to do
with it all.

Qui si parla Campagnolo said:

First, 20k isn't that old and if they click and the d ring has the
shifter set all the way to 'index'...I'll bet it's something
else...inner wire, housing, below BB guide. I've only seen 2 pair of
himano index barends fail.

Which RD? and which model barends-If DA, that may have something to do
with it all.

They are standard 7-sp bar-ends from about 1994. And, the shifting is
worse from the 2nd smalllest cog to the 3rd. I have to "overshift" a
bit to get it to work. Others shift fine. I checked the cables-
they move smoothly. I checked routing under the bb. The derailleur if
a new-if-cheap-and-available Sora. It replaced a long-cage '93 XT that
was used for about 4 years.

I wonder if there is a new detent ring or something I could get.

Rob

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I soaked the bar end in
solvent and quite a bit of very fine grey metallic particulate matter
and grease washed out. I also replaced the "sealed" ferrules on the
cable with unsealed ones. I added a new derailleur cable to boot.

Snappy shifting is once more mine!

RobertPerkins said:

Qui si parla Campagnolo said:

First, 20k isn't that old and if they click and the d ring has the
shifter set all the way to 'index'...I'll bet it's something
else...inner wire, housing, below BB guide. I've only seen 2 pair of
shimano index barends fail.