While out riding Saturday my drive train began to make a little bit of grinding noise that I attributed to the roads being wet and sandy. I adjusted the trim on my FD and this appeared to help some. I flushed out my drive train when I got home and made a note to do a thorough cleaning ASAP.
Today I cleaned out my drive train and to my complete surprise I discovered that the two rivets that mount the cage of my front deraileur had backed out. They were far enough in so that one side of the cage was no longer being supported. The cage was able to float about an 1/8". This was the cause of most of the noise.
I removed the deraileur and was able to push the rivets all the way back in. Now heres the kicker. Both of these rivets were never peened over. I was able to roll the rivets over using a [censored] punch saving myself the need to replace the FD. This is a manufacturers defect that came around to haunt me several years down the road.
I just thought I would share this. With all the cleaning and adjusting I have done over the years I never bothered to inspect if these rivets were peened. Only takes a second to look but may save you a boat load of troubles in the future. This cage could have very easily got caught up in my chain and cause some severe damage.
Dave