I was having a problem with the quick release on my Ultegra (6500?)
rear brakes. When I turned the quick release lever, the anchor bolt
rotated with the lever - the anchor bolt was cranking the cable 90
degrees, and NOT returning the brakes to the correct position. It is
supposed to work with the lever moving a cam mechanism which raises
and lowers the anchor bolt, not twisting it. It looked like it was
simply torqued too tight, gunked up or both.
It looked like a simple mechanism, so I took it apart, and really it
is a simple straight forward deal, except...
The only problem is that there is a tiny ball bearing in there that
nests in a little spring in the quick release lever itself. The
purpose of the ball bearing is to create "detents" when the lever is
moved. Inside the mechanism there is a serrated bushing that works
with the spring loaded ball bearing to make the detents.
It can be seen in the assembly labeled "17" in this diagram:
http://tinyurl.com/2jjt9u (this is the exploded view of the Ultegra
6500 brake from the Shimano.com site)
Does this make sense?
Anyway, I could not get the lever to push into the bushing with the
ball bearing in place. To do this, the ball bearing needs to to
retract into the spring, and it doesn't do it on it's own (at least
with the amount of force I'm willing to put on it).
I did get the mechanism back together without the ball bearing, and it
works fine - rotating smoothly and the quick release works fine in
full-open and full-closed positions. But the detents aren't there.
I'm thinking there must be some reason for the detents - probably so
the quick release doesn't inadvertantly release and/or so that
intermediate positions will hold in place.
Does anyone have any words of wisdom -either "don't worry about it" or
advice on how to assemble it with the ball bearing.
NOTE: although I tried VERY HARD to loose that ball bearing (it is
TINY), I managed to find it every time I dropped it and now have it
sealed in a large envelope)