# downtube shifter "friction screw" wont stay put



## deltaskelta (Apr 13, 2014)

I cant post a picture of it right now, but my bike has downtube shifters and the outer screw that holds it together and causes the friction keeps coming loose because its a strange kind of wing-nut and no matter how hard I crank it down with my hand it still comes loose. THis causes the shifter to slowly move back to the upward position when I am riding. 

Windering if this is a common issue with downtube shifters, or its just my bike? Should you constantly need to tighten the tension nut, or should it just always stay tight and the shifter stay in the same position you pushed it to?


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## JCavilia (Sep 12, 2005)

No, it's not normal, and you should be able to make the lever stay put. Is it possible it was disassembled and put back together wrong? You should be able to tighten it enough. You could try a bit of blue loctite, but be careful to put it only on the screw threads.

It's also possible some lubricant has found its way into the wrong place. disassembling and cleaning the parts may fix it.


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## deltaskelta (Apr 13, 2014)

Ok. I'll investigate it more when I get off work. Thanks for the input


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## Kerry Irons (Feb 25, 2002)

JCavilia said:


> No, it's not normal, and you should be able to make the lever stay put. Is it possible it was disassembled and put back together wrong? You should be able to tighten it enough. You could try a bit of blue loctite, but be careful to put it only on the screw threads.
> 
> It's also possible some lubricant has found its way into the wrong place. disassembling and cleaning the parts may fix it.


Or it's a possibility that the threads are not greased and therefore the OP can't get the proper force on the wing nut. It's also possible that the OP has very low quality shifters that will never really work well. There were hundreds of thousands of bikes like that sold back in the day.


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