# What broke front shifter won't "click"?



## hozzerr1

Shimano 105 front shifter will not "click" to engage and shift to big ring? 
This shifter have never been dropped and have no more than 500miles on it. Got them new from a friend. 

Today while riding it dropped to the small ring and that was it. it will not engage to big ring. I tried changing the limiting screw on the front der to no avail

What broke? 
Can it be fixed?


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## Sasquatch

Shimano component quality has dropped. My experience with the latest line has been less than stellar.

Hope you can still get that fixed.


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## enzo24

Disconnect the cable from the derailleur and then try it. If it's older 105 you should be able to pull the brake lever and see the mechanism moving. 5700 you have to pull back the brake hood and it's a bit harder to see things. 

Unfortunately, even though the things can be serviced, you can't buy parts for them from Shimano, you'd have to look on ebay or something.


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## cxwrench

not sure why you'd adjust the limit screw, they don't go out of adjustment. could be that the cable frayed and broke inside the shifter. could be the classic shimano 'sticky shifter' if the cable isn't broken. if the cable is still intact, spray some wd40 inside the shifter and paddle it back and forth a bunch...it's very rare that one actually breaks, contrary to the poorly informed previous poster's opinion of shimano component quality.


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## Al1943

Shoot it full of WD40, let it sit over night and shoot it again.
But first check to see if the cable has slipped at the clamp on the derailleur.
See derailleur setup and adjustment instructions at Park Tool Co. » Park Tool Co..
You should not have messed with the limit screws.


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## Kerry Irons

*Cable slip*



Al1943 said:


> first check to see if the cable has slipped at the clamp on the derailleur.


With only 500 miles on the bike, cable slip is the first suspect. When the derailleur is shifted all the way "down" (repeatedly click it like shifting to the small chain ring) I'm betting there is a large amount of slack in the cable. Easy to spot and easy to fix.


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## hozzerr1

thanks guys really appreciate the help.

I followed the suggestions provided above and discovered that the cable was the culprit, however I also found signs of other issues too.

The cable had not slipped at the FD nor was it broken in the shifter all the contrary. the housing cable wires pierced through the ferrule at the shifter end by almost 1/4 of an inch and when I removed it the cable was "stuck" in the shifter and wouldn't come out (had to remove it to fix housing). 

So it seems as though the leverage of the shifter to the FD is too much? I dunno.

This is on a giant tcx my cyclocross bike which I've ran single ring upfront forever, but decided to add FD just for riding around...


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## wim

hozzerr1 said:


> the housing cable wires pierced through the ferrule at the shifter end by almost 1/4 of an inch and when I removed it the cable was "stuck" in the shifter and wouldn't come out (had to remove it to fix housing).


I've seen this twice now in the last few months. In one case, the section of housing wire strand that had gone into shifter was about 2" long. What allowed this to happen was the fact that ferrule at the shifter end of the housing was plastic. The strand was able to punch a hole through it. A metal ferrule would almost certainly prevent this.

It has nothing to do with leverage. When shifting from the small to the large ring, you're pulling against the very strong downshift spring in the front derailleur. All the counterforce when making that small-to-large shift goes against the housing end at the shifter.


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## Kerry Irons

*Metal ferrule*



hozzerr1 said:


> The cable had not slipped at the FD nor was it broken in the shifter all the contrary. the housing cable wires pierced through the ferrule at the shifter end by almost 1/4 of an inch and when I removed it the cable was "stuck" in the shifter and wouldn't come out (had to remove it to fix housing).


You simply need to replace the plastic ferrule with a metal one. How anybody thinks that plastic is the right material for this application is a mystery to me. It would/might work for spiral wound casing (brake cable casing) but certainly not for shifter casing which has linear strands of steel.


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## cxwrench

Kerry Irons said:


> You simply need to replace the plastic ferrule with a metal one. How anybody thinks that plastic is the right material for this application is a mystery to me. It would/might work for spiral wound casing (brake cable casing) but certainly not for shifter casing which has linear strands of steel.


and Shimano has been recommending (and providing) alloy ferrules for the shifter end of the housing since about 7 minutes after the new 7900/6700 shifters came out.


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## hozzerr1

thanks guys, all your help was helpful in helping me...

another mistery solved.


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