Replacement rear dérailleur

Hi,

First post and not being a cycling enthusiast, I'm probably a one question wonder.
Having been stood around for many years, I've begun using an old mountain bike which my brother gave me.

My problem is that I'm not able to shift the rear derailleur any more. I attempted to adjust the cable from the shifter and although this works when pushing the shifter forward, the derailleur floppy thing (technical term) doesn't return when the shifter is pulled back towards me. Looking at videos, a rear derailleur should contain a return spring and this seems to be missing. The fault developed suddenly.

The bike is an unmarked yellow Saracen bought in around 1988, probably a Tufftrax. The gears are marked Shimano Exage.

Are the odds good of getting a suitable new replacement derailleur or should I attempt to repair the one I have?

Advice gratefully received by the world's cheapest man. I should add that the gears on this bike were never much good.

N.

Re:

A warm welcome to you noisy!
Sounds like a bike that's desperately in need of some real love.
Could be a broken shifter or a snapped spring in the rear mech.
Cables may need some cleaning or replacing.
Why don't you just start with spraying WD40 on all rusty technical stuff on the bike and inside the shifters.
Your local bike shop probably has some cheap old stuff that's usefull to get it running again.
Save it mate, and join us.

The spring in exage shifters used to stick causing it not to work, and sometimes the spring broke.........but reading your post again, I'd be inclined to start with a new inner and outer gear cable.

First things to check, remove the outer gear housing from the stop. You can do this simply, have the bike in a stand or rear wheel off the ground, Make sure you press the small shift button on the right hand lever so it's in the smallest sprocket. Next, use your index finger and thumb on your left hand to push the rear mech up, whilst pedalling with the other hand, the cable should freely come out of the guide, this brings me on to my next point. If the rear mech returns freely without the cable in, it wont be the rear mech.

I don't think the old shimano mechs had a visible spring.

The usual comment of a pic or 2 may help

Hope this help

Where do you live Noisy? Maybe a local Retrobiker would be happy to take a look for you? It's so much easier to diagnose and fix when you can see the bike!

Re:

Thanks for the advice all.

The cables have full movement and are in fair condition. Although the chain and gears are a little greasy, there's nothing really wrong there either.

Being fairly lazy, I couldn't be bothered to take a picture of the component and upload it, so here's one of an identical unit which I've shamelessly stolen:



In every photograph of this type of derailleur, it seems that the floppy thing (with the nut on) is spring loaded so as to push away from the thumbscrew cable adjuster whatsit. This doesn't happen on mine, so I've ordered a replacement which will hopefully arrive early in January.

Merry New Year and all that.