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My wife [s]has managed to break[/s] was the person using a borrowed road bike when the Sora rear shifter stopped working. It feels jammed, won't click, and won't shift. I am not familiar with the innards of road STI levers. Any quick fixes to try before I shell out for a new shifter? I've already peeled the hoods back and sprayed some GT85 in there, to no avail.
Is it one of the older ones with the button on the inside? Running on a double chainset?
Edit : Ah, misread, rear shifter. Ignore me.
Change the cable first and whilst doing so check the outers. Sora is pretty tough, don't spray gt85 in the mechanism đŸ˜‰
I reckon the cable has come/was a bit slack and has got itself kinked inside.
Not had sora., but have had it on Tiagra etc.
Disconnect at the mech, pull the inner taught and do some clicky up and down with the lever.
Will probably just need a new inner cable.
I shall quickly get in my time machine and un spray it! Then try a cable change.
It's worth flushing Shimano road levers(and MTB ones) with a degreaser and then applying something like GT85. There are many reports of the original lube just gumming things up after a while.
And if this was in the past couple of days - are you sure it's not just water frozen in the cable? A mate had exactly this happen on Friday. Once thawed out all was peachy again.
Shimano STIs have a habit of chewing the inner cable just under the nipple, frayed cable jams the shifter - see if you can free / replace the inner
Stop using it and get the gear cable out. It’s probably fraying inside the shifter and they can be a right pain in the arse to get out if they snap.
I spent the best part of an hour retrieving a broken cable from a shifter last week. Oh the joy.
If it has frayed have a good look around for any stray bits inside that tend to make shifting a bit funky if not removed.
About a week ago Colin, so I don't think it's directly related to the cold snap. I'll get the cable out and stick a new one and see if that does it. Thanks for the tips.
So I've removed the old cable, and it doesn't seem that old at all. It's certainly not frayed or marked at all at the shifter end. I can see the shifter moving it towards the outside, but whatever is supposed to then catch/click to hold it while the lever returns isn't working.
My tiagra had an interior little white cable guide, just bit of plastic that that got chewed up and stopped the gears working like your symptoms. Was tricky to see but it's was in there behind the cable and stuck in the innards. I pulled it out completely with needle pliers and gears worked. Have a look on the Shimano exploded diagrams for your levers.
Thanks scruff, I'll take a look!