Campy Athena Shifter Help

[dougefresh]

so i was building up a frame last night with lightly used athena 11. after installing the rear shift cable and clicking through with hand tension on the cable i strung it all together. at this point i felt a ton of tension shifting in both directions. i stopped, disassembled the cabling and pulled the shifter off. it looked like the cable end (yes, the correct one) started to break off and the cable got all twisted around the ratchet mechanism. i proceeded to disassemble, remove the frayed cable and reassemble the shifter; that coil spring was really fun; and got everything re-installed. shifting going up the cassette to easier gears is great but when down the cassette towards the 12 sometimes the derailleur will dump the chain all the way down, but not always.

any of you campy pros know what this could be? does it have something to do with me taking the thing apart or are the pawls bad or sticky or something? any help is appreciated.

[ultraman6970]

Have a really idiotic question for you... are you sure the right hand lever is attached to the rd?? No idea if you have all the clicks (10), but if suddenly after click 4 or 6 goes all the way down then maybe you put the left lever (FD) in the right side of the frame and that cable pointing to the RD.

Thing I have seen before.

[oldpotatoe]

so i was building up a frame last night with lightly used athena 11. after installing the rear shift cable and clicking through with hand tension on the cable i strung it all together. at this point i felt a ton of tension shifting in both directions. i stopped, disassembled the cabling and pulled the shifter off. it looked like the cable end (yes, the correct one) started to break off and the cable got all twisted around the ratchet mechanism. i proceeded to disassemble, remove the frayed cable and reassemble the shifter; that coil spring was really fun; and got everything re-installed. shifting going up the cassette to easier gears is great but when down the cassette towards the 12 sometimes the derailleur will dump the chain all the way down, but not always.

any of you campy pros know what this could be? does it have something to do with me taking the thing apart or are the pawls bad or sticky or something? any help is appreciated.

Powershift or Ultrashift.

On Powershift, the thumb button, releasing all the way down, is a common 'failure' mode for this type shifter, unfortunately. You can ensure the wee bolt that holds the whole thing together, actually, both, the one in front also(need to remove brake lever to access) are tight but if when on say the 14, thumb button, and it goes all the way down..maybe a 'failure' type mode.

[oldpotatoe]

Have a really idiotic question for you... are you sure the right hand lever is attached to the rd?? No idea if you have all the clicks (10), but if suddenly after click 4 or 6 goes all the way down then maybe you put the left lever (FD) in the right side of the frame and that cable pointing to the RD.

Thing I have seen before.

How on earth would you mount the LH lever on the right and see the thumb button on the outside of the lever, and think that's correct?

[dougefresh]

Have a really idiotic question for you... are you sure the right hand lever is attached to the rd?? No idea if you have all the clicks (10), but if suddenly after click 4 or 6 goes all the way down then maybe you put the left lever (FD) in the right side of the frame and that cable pointing to the RD.

Thing I have seen before.

yes. rear/ right shifter connected to rear derailleur. i've seen a part time bike builder attach shift cables to brakes and vice-versa.

[dougefresh]

Powershift or Ultrashift.

On Powershift, the thumb button, releasing all the way down, is a common 'failure' mode for this type shifter, unfortunately. You can ensure the wee bolt that holds the whole thing together, actually, both, the one in front also(need to remove brake lever to access) are tight but if when on say the 14, thumb button, and it goes all the way down..maybe a 'failure' type mode.

will check tightness of all wee bolts. didn't check front one. fun stuff.

[dougefresh]

how on earth would you mount the lh lever on the right and see the thumb button on the outside of the lever, and think that's correct?




:) :) :)

[ultraman6970]

No Potato... im talking about the cables... if you put the left hand lever cable at the other side of the frame (right hand down tube cable tensioner) the rd will do weird stuff as the op is saying... just mentioning it because have seen it before.

[oldpotatoe]

yes. rear/ right shifter connected to rear derailleur. i've seen a part time bike builder attach shift cables to brakes and vice-versa.

Been a while but had a customer use der cables for the brakes cuz 'they were lighter'..true story. He was insensed when we replaced the der cables to the brakes with brake cables..goodbye-don't come back...

[dougefresh]

thanks oldpotatoe,
i'll double check all bolts. these are the power shift versions. when you say "failure mode" does that mean "eff'd mode"? the cable releases all the way USUALLY around the 14 but sometimes on larger cogs. sometimes not at all.

the routing is internal, no crossed cables on the downtube.

[ultraman6970]

Hmm... i have another theory...The head of the cable is being caught in the cable spooler maybe? (two actually combined) You mentioning something at the begining that the cable got all tangled inside of the lever aswell.

Easy to check but you will need to take the lever out, again... pull the lever out, pull the cable as much as you can and click it up and down and see if the head of the cable is somehow is touching the lever body, if it does the head get the cable stuck and create friction. Look at the lever area, around the spooler if you have firction marks, if you do thats the problem.

Solution, dremel the darn head down, or take the spooler out and drill it a little bit deeper, 3rd solution find a new spooler (potato), campagnolo re issued cable spoolers because of this problem. Wonder if the cable spooler is white, the old design is white, the new one is black.

Another problem, the cables tend to get a nasty 80 degrees kink right after the head so if you have some crap like that sure the head is getting trapped when clicking and that creates the problem. Mix what i said before with this.

Hope this helps.

[dougefresh]

no go on any of these guys.

potatoe, sending you a pm.

[binxnyrwarrsoul]

Powershift, meh.

[dougefresh]

Yeah. Meh. I just got a set of Record shift bodies on the way. I get the Ultra Shift upgrade and will put the silver brake lever blades on for the classic look.

[ultraman6970]

Do they match?