What's wrong with my shifter?

Ghosty

Kona Fan
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My Cinder Cone has STX 3x8 rapid fire pods on it (might have been from new as the whole front end of the bike has a period set up for 1996 - seems someone didn't like gripshifts). The front/left shifter has never worked properly in the whole time I've had the bike - the shifter flat out doesn't go into 3. At first I thought it was something to do with limit screws or the throw of the Sachs front mech, but an M737 one was no better.
On closer inspection, the shifter doesn't click onto 3 at all, in fact it runs out of travel before it can, and just stops. It also seems a bit like it wants to shift lower than the 1 position (it springs off to the right very quickly, but pushing it left is harder). I can select 1 and 2 just fine.

As well as I can display in text, the range of the indicator on the shifter (where | is the marker/needle/whatever) goes: (3|-2-1) ---> (3-2-1|).

Anyone have any idea if it's repairable, or do I need a new pair of pods? I'm getting sick of running it as a 1x8 when everything else on the bike works perfectly.
 
Does it index without the cable secured at the mech?
 
It's not attached at the moment, and the above is what I'm experiencing. It behaves the same regardless.
 
Re:

Put an old cable in it, remove the bottom cover, give it a really good spray of WD40 or similar, stand on one end of the cable to anchor it and pull it fairly tight. cycle the shifter several times, and see if it frees up any...........
 
Might just need cleaning. Just take the back off and see if the pawls are sticking, spray some wd on it if they are and get them moving freely, no need to take it to bits.
 
Re:

The back then, surely there is some way of getting to the mechanism. you really want to keep the shifter under some tension though, hence the cable...
 
Re: Re:

kermitgreenkona88":35jwj8ro said:
The back then, surely there is some way of getting to the mechanism. you really want to keep the shifter under some tension though, hence the cable...


+1 on the cable, you need the tension for the mechanism to work :)
 
Okay, looked at it again after putting some GT85 in it earlier (I'm a night owl).
Tension in the cable doesn't affect the behaviour at all.
Pushing the shift up lever so the indicator passes 2, then pushing the shift down lever while holding shift up allows the indicator to move a lot closer to the 3 position, but it doesn't click in place, just springs back to 2 when you let go of either lever.
 

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