Dura Ace 7400 downtube shifter setup not right. Or is it me?

[Holiocornolio]

Can anyone advise on the setup of Dura ace downtube shifters? The set I have work fine and shift fine. The rear shifter is obviously indexed and comes to a firm stop in the forward position. The left shifter for the front derailleur is sprung, and uncabled, the shifter springs back to be perpendicular to the downtube, which I think is as it should be. But.... when you push it forward, there is no stop position when it's parallel to the downtube, and you can continue to push it through another 90 degrees or more so that it points towards the floor. Weirdly, if you pull it back, there is a stop position, when the left shifter is perpendicular to the tube again. That doesn't seem right to me, but no amount of fiddling with the shifter or the frame brackets or braze ons changes it. what (if anything) am I doing wrong?

 

[Holiocornolio]

Oh - For the sake of clarity - I should say these are 7402 shifter. also, should they have a paper friction washer between the shifter and the bracket on the braze on?

 

[RobLoasby]

Will these help?

https://si.shimano.com/api/publish/storage/pdf/en/si/N-74/SI-N-74-000-00-ENG.pdf

https://si.shimano.com/api/publish/storage/pdf/en/ev/SL-7402/EV-SL-7402-0922A.pdf

 

[Holiocornolio]

Thanks. That is extremely helpful. I can see that there are no parts missing in my lever set, so maybe it is supposed to be that way?

 

[hamster]

I suspect that the left shifter is 90 degrees out. Remove, rotate and refit. Also, check that the frame spacer thing is not 180 degrees out.

 

[foz]

What hamster said... If you get the chromed spacer that goes between frame and shifter the wrong way round, exactly what you describe is exactly what happens

 

[Holiocornolio]

What hamster said... If you get the chromed spacer that goes between frame and shifter the wrong way round, exactly what you describe is exactly what happens

So... I took the chrome bracket off. There's a notch inside the bracket, which lines up with a lump or lug on the lever, so there's only one way that the lever will fit to the bracket. If I turn the bracket through 180 degrees, the lever points at the ground in its resting position. More faffing to do I think.

 

[Johnny Ragwort]

I had exactly the same issue with the 600 shifters on my Mike Mullett. No amount of rotating the spacer solved it and in the end I replaced them with a pair of 600 STI shifters from Ebay. The downtube shifters have gone into the bits box to be sorted out another day.

 

[juice.bikes]

The trick for FD side is to have the chrome bracket with the notch pointing at the head tube and then the actual shifter installed with tension in the spring - half installing the lever so it catches the notch, then spinning the lever round so its tensioned and hits the parallel point and stops. When you then screw the bolt to hold it in place it should make it stay in its position a lot easier.. It's hard to explain tbh but hopefully this helps.

If anyone has some spare 8 Speed DA 7402 shifters then shoot me a dm plz

 

[Holiocornolio]

The trick for FD side is to have the chrome bracket with the notch pointing at the head tube and then the actual shifter installed with tension in the spring - half installing the lever so it catches the notch, then spinning the lever round so its tensioned and hits the parallel point and stops. When you then screw the bolt to hold it in place it should make it stay in its position a lot easier.. It's hard to explain tbh but hopefully this helps.

If anyone has some spare 8 Speed DA 7402 shifters then shoot me a dm plz

Ok so I did this and it kind of works. The stop is now at the front of the lever travel, although not with the lever parallel to the downtube. Nevertheless it's a better solution than I had before and has the added bonus that the extra tension in the lever spring also helps prevent the lever slopping forward a bit. Thanks