# Front derailleur broken?



## jon.mithe (6 Dec 2008)

Hi,

Posted a thread about chainsets etc here http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=23570

This all started when my front gear cable snapped. I replaced it today but the front derailleur is very stiff, very hard to change gear (would change up to the large chainwheel but didnt bother, got half way and thought could break the gear shifter.

The shifter itself shifts fine when the gear cable is not attached to the front derailleur, i.e. its not the shifter, cables or anything onto the route to the front derailleur. I tried moving the front derailleur with my thumb and it was very stiff.

Thought it might be dirt as when it moves there a little gritty sound, so unattached it at the pivot point and cleaned it with some WD40, also the springy bit. I realise its not the best thing to use (ppl recommended GT85 but the shops had none). When I move it now, it moves smoothe with no gritty sounds or anything but it is still very hard.

I looked at the high / low stop screws to play with the low adjustment, but notice the low screw was popping up a bit, tried turning it with the screwdriver but couldnt (tried quite hard). I tried putting a load of WD40 but still no luck.

I'm guessing thats the problem? 

Heres a picture of my front derailleur.

You can see the low pops up a bit. Are there any things that cold be causeing this problem or anything I can do to fix the screw? - or does it sound like a new derailleur?

Thanks for any help,
Cheers, Jon


----------



## swee'pea99 (6 Dec 2008)

Breaking cables, iffy screws, gritty sounds? Just a suggestion - ebay search on 'front derailleur' and see what comes up.


----------



## ed_o_brain (6 Dec 2008)

Jon,

When you fitted the new cable, was the cable inner running through the cable outer freely? Not snagging anywhere? Have you tried slackening off the table, pulling some back out of the shifter, then pulling it taut again at the derailleur end? It should move quite freely.

Have you tried moving the front derailleur cage by hand? It will be a bit stiff, that's normal. The derailleur is sprung and that spring acts to keep it on the low position (small ring). With the cable attached, you should be able to grab the cable inner, where it is exposed, say running along the bikes down tube, and pull on it. This should have the effect of moving the derailleur.

The low screw can be hard to turn when the derailleur is in the low position and now cable is attached to take the tension of the derailleur cage - the end of that little screw will be taking the tension of the derailleur spring.

Is it possible that you have the high screw screwed in too far, restricting the derailleurs movement? Try pulling on the cable, see if the derailleur moves and how far it moves until you can't pull the cable any further. If you reach that point before the derailleur cage will have shifted the chain onto the large chainring, try unscrewing that high screw a few turns and then retry. Does the derailleur cage go any further?

All those screws do is limit the derailleurs movement as not so fling the chain off either the small chainring and the larg chainring.

Report your findings here. There's not much to go wrong with a front derailleur.


----------



## jon.mithe (8 Dec 2008)

The cable itself moves fine, if I deattach it from the derailleur and hold it with my fingers just next to it and switch gear, it moves with no fuss.

Yeah moving the cage by hand is hard. I'll try again today to change the low screw, but the last tie I tried that i couldnt turn it.

Thanks, Jon


----------



## peanut (8 Dec 2008)

front mechs are so incredably cheap I wouldn't spend another second on it. Just buy a new one and your system will be shifting a dream once again.
Ribble have a cheapy for £5.00 -£10.00

don't mean to be rude but that front mech is a right piece of cheap junk. Why don't you look in the for sale on here and bike radar forum.

Just had a look in my spares box. I have a Shimano FD-2200 front mech with med cage in reasonable nick. Yours free of charge if you want to send me some postage.
Heres a link for spec and setup
http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/t...FD-2200/SI-5GE0B-En_v1_m56577569830603801.pdf

Noticed your front chain rings are excessively worn


----------



## briank (8 Dec 2008)

jon - take that offer! (Just be careful you don't take his hand with it!)


----------



## jon.mithe (8 Dec 2008)

Hi, 

Thanks for the help + thank you very much for the offer its very kind, but if I have to replace this I think I will look into converting my bike to a single speed because I get the feeling these will be recurrent problems. I would probably maintain the bike more + properly that way, which would probably be a good thing. I've found my gears have always been a little tetchy from time to time + once I reckon they purposely tried to throw me under a bus... but thankfully failed. So in future spending / maintenance its probably the best way to go.

Thanks again, Jon.


----------



## stevevw (9 Dec 2008)

How can you treat a poor Fairfax in such a way  
I love mine and get a bit worried if it gets wet let alone 8 months of road crud and old chain oil 

I have to say mine has a loverly gear change that may well be better than any of my other bikes. I would suggest spending the money on replacement parts and keeping behind the cleaning and maintanace in future. The more often you do it the less time it takes. Not having a go just trying to help.


----------



## fossyant (9 Dec 2008)

Jon the problems won't be recurrent - certain grades of parts last a long time - you need to spray a mech with lube......especially in winter. Front mech's last years !


----------



## Radius (9 Dec 2008)

It's really not worth 'just giving up gears' because of a problem with one (and I must say rather beaten and old looking) front mech. They're really cheap, and though I have nothing against fixie riders, the bikes simply are not built for every occasion, and I would expect that many who ride fixed also have a geared bike for exactly this reason...

EDIT: As per your original problem, could it not just be that the shifter cable is too tight? That's what it sounds like...


----------



## spandex (9 Dec 2008)

I sounds like the cable is to tight.


Where are you?


----------



## jon.mithe (9 Dec 2008)

Its all roundabouts now :/. Went to my lbs again, talked over the possibilites of single gear, but with my particular bike I'd need a conversion kit and apparently its just not as good as the real thing. This time they setup my bike for a tenner and didnt insist on a £50 service (I actually managed to install + setup my brakes, change my chain and swap a gear cable myself - so some good has come out of all this!). So now I have a front + rear gears again as a basepoint. But now, when I start pushing hard, the the front starts skipping! (guess theres a couple smiling faces out there ) Cant help but think all that dirt I cleaned off was probably providing enough friction to keep the chain on all this time  So I've either got to get my chainset really dirty again or swap it...

This time he had no big chainset wheel but could replace the whole chainset + cranks for £68 + probably £20-30 for the cassette. I think the chainset was

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/Cycle/7/Shimano_Tiagra_FC4550_Hollowtech_II_Double_Chainset/5360027342/

which deinitly seemed nicer than the one I had.m They asking bit more (centre of london) but I'll probably get the cassette as well and push for a free fitting. Or its gonna be another diy attempt!

So with gears cables, brakes, chain, chain tool, new cleats, cleaning stuff, cassettes, chainsets this 8 month service is all gonna come to £150 odd :/ 

Thanks again for the help, might of gone around in circles but have learnt quite alot about bikes, bits + maintanence, which'll definitly save me in money in the future!

cheers, jon


----------



## peanut (9 Dec 2008)

you sure the frame is worth spending that kind of money on ? You'll probably want to upgrade the Sti's that'l be another £100


----------



## jon.mithe (10 Dec 2008)

Lol dont think I'll be going that far. Just want to get it working and me and to and fro work safely, without it trying to throw me under a bus - and if that means spending another £100 then I guess I have to :/


----------



## peanut (10 Dec 2008)

jon.mithe said:


> Lol dont think I'll be going that far. Just want to get it working and me and to and fro work safely, without it trying to throw me under a bus - and if that means spending another £100 then I guess I have to :/



sorry I thought you said £150 + 

'So with gears cables, brakes, chain, chain tool, new cleats, cleaning stuff, cassettes, chainsets this 8 month service is all gonna come to £150 odd :/ '


----------



## jon.mithe (10 Dec 2008)

lol no, thats a little face of despair. Managed to of saved over £800 from riding into work rather than tubing it in with an oyster travel card (less £200 for pay as you go trips, so £600) so the bike even with this sort of expendature is working out alot cheaper - so alls not bad.


----------



## Steve O'Bike (28 Dec 2008)

I have had exactly this problem with my bike. In my case it was because I had routed the cable incorrectly where it ataches to the front derailleur. There is a small lug next to the attachment bolt and the cable needs to be routed OUTSIDE of this before being bent round and held by the clamping bolt. See the instructions on the Shimano website (Page 3 figure 2)

http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/t...FD-R443/SI-5E70A_EN_v1_m56577569830605977.PDF

This gives it more mechanical advantage. Judging by your photo you have routed the cable between the lug and the bolt as I did (it is hard to be sure because you have taken the photo from the other side of the mech).

Hope this helps.


----------

