Rear mech breakaway - refitting spring

Evening all! I'm after a bit of advice in putting a rear mech back together. I had a rather stiff breakaway bolt which I removed to clean and grease and when I refitted the mech I noticed that there was no tension in the spring. It appears that it has been taken apart in the past and whoever did it has not located the spring correctly - I can see why, because I am unable to rotate it the half turn necessary to get it to locate before refitting the circlip. I'll gladly upload pics to illustrate later but I expect some of you already know exactly what I'm talking about

Any helpful advice appreciated.....

Good afternoon!

Been there!

Honestly, I put on my mechanics gloves, stuck a small piece of metal in the thumb to press on the spring, grabbed an small screwdriver, and cursed and swore until it was on. Once in place I had the clip already in a small vice grip and snapped it in while I held the spring in place. Worst 5 minutes of bike work ever.

Love to hear a better way though!

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I can tell by your description that you know exactly what I'm talking about Fingers of steel would definitely be the way forward - pushing it with a screwdriver blade just feels like an accident waiting to happen

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raidan73":1jsk8va3 said:

I can tell by your description that you know exactly what I'm talking about Fingers of steel would definitely be the way forward - pushing it with a screwdriver blade just feels like an accident waiting to happen

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Oh I do!

I had my safety glasses on ... And a hockey helmet.

Job totally sucks.

I'm using some needle nose pliers to grip the end of the spring then start turning on the derailleur instead, whilst pushing the spring in. Suckiest job when reassembling a rear derailleur. Done my fair share of those by now (But still dread the spring tension moment). Fingers of steel would help (mine are wee Jessie fingers though...)

Step away from the tools and the potential to scratch stuff ...

WD Pro":3jpl49wx said:

Two hands, weak fingers, no tools, no scratches ... ;-)

WD Pro":3jpl49wx said:

I finished swapping over the rear mech, I couldn't use the Ti pulley as the bearing caps were wider (maybe 7 or 8 speed or something ?), I will need to replace or modify them, shame as they have just been anodised ... :-(



All Ti bolts were spun up in the drill to put a nice brushed finish on them

Mech bolt was the swapped in the same way as I did on the Bear Valley :

WD Pro":3jpl49wx said:

Although I had changed the bolt to a Ti one on my old 735 I couldn’t remember how I changed it (20 years ago ) and tales on here of them being a pain and needing pliers etc didn’t sit well with me, especially as it would be put back together after being polished up ... :? Well a bit of thinking and it was actually quite easy using a long bolt screwed into the angle of dangle hole :

So you can twist it quite easily and hold it down all with one hand :

WD

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WD

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WD

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WD

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Ah, I see what you did there. Will maybe give that a try

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i've got one to do and knew of WD's method but just haven't managed to get a bolt yet.

It's a pain, have done my fair share and seem to recall that holding the mech in a soft vice and using a lever of some sort worked best. I also seem to recall using some locking pliers to prevent it all springing apart whilst fitting the circlip. I've not done one for a while though due to the annoyance of it all.

You all have girly hands;-)