How to Repair a Bicycle Shifter

Nine times out of 10, when bicycle shifters fail it is because the cable that operates the shifter breaks. If the handle or internal parts like springs or bearings on bike shifters break, they are replaced, not repaired. Most often when cables break, the shifter is blamed, but when looking closer, it becomes obvious that the cable has snapped off inside the shifter. When this happens, you should know how to fix the shifter.

Things You'll Need

  • Bike stand
  • 4-inch piece of wire
  • 4 mm Allen wrench
  • Wire cutters
  • Spare cable
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Instructions

    • 1

      Put the bike in a bike stand. Push the handle of the shifter as far as it will go toward the stem of the bike. This opens up the shifter's internal cable routing.

    • 2

      Examine the inside of the shifter. Look for a small hole or a broken cable end sticking out of a small hole.

    • 3

      Locate the hole and push on the end of the broken cable. Try to force it back out through the other side of the shifter. If it will not go through or you cannot see the end of the cable, use a small stiff piece of wire to poke into the hole, forcing the end of the cable to drop out of the shifter handle. A small piece of cable should fall out with a small bead on the end.

    • 4

      Unscrew the 4mm setscrew on the bottom of the bike's derailleur, which holds the cable in place.

    • 5

      Clip the bead off the end of the cable using wire cutters. Pull the cable out of all the cable housings and discard it.

    • 6

      Insert the new cable in the hole in the shifter handle. Pull it all the way through the shifter handle until the bead on the new cable disappears into the shifter handle where the old one came out.

    • 7

      Thread the other end of the cable through the cable housing down to the bottom of the rear derailleur. Thread it through the 4mm setscrew and tighten it to the derailleur.

    • 8

      Check the shifter function by changing gears, watching as the cable pulls the derailleur into the different gears. If the bike won't shift or has noisy shifts, tighten the barrel adjuster on the shifter handle counterclockwise until the bike shifts cleanly.