Gsinill
11-26-2013, 04:06 PM
I thought I'd share some details on how I removed a totally stuck cable housing from the internal cable routing channel in the top tube of an old De Rosa frame that I bought as a restoration project. The frame had been stored in a basement for the last 10 years which caused the cable housing to corrode turning the removal into quite a challenge...
Some of it has already been shared here (http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=140089) but I wanted to create a separate more detailed thread that explains all the steps it took.
So here it goes…
When I got the frame, it looked like there was one long continuos piece of brake cable housing in the cable channel, sticking out on each side of the top tube.
Since there was a significant amount of corrosion on both ends, I soaked them overnight with WD40 in the hope that I would be able to pull the whole cable out the next day.
Wishful thinking…
The only thing that I could remove was the inner spiral of the housing which simply unwound and came out easily but the black plastic housing didn't budge at all.
Once the spiral was gone I took a spoke an poked into the hole from both sides. Even though I greased the spoke it took significant amount of force to push it all the way in which indicated that the plastic of the cable must have changed over time, turning into a softer, rubberlike texture.
When I tried to insert the spoke on the opposite side of the channel, I hit a hard resistance after about 10 centimeters.
Apparently one of the previous owners must have tried the same thing by inserting something in the channel which was now stuck.
So here are the steps I took (including the removal of the stuck object which normally shouldn't be the case but since I had to deal with it, I'll include it anyway):
I closed one end of the channel with a wooden plug
Then I filled the whole channel with acetone and let it soak overnight (I did a test before by putting a piece of the cable housing in acetone for a few hours: it turned from its hard rather "plasticy" texture into a very soft piece of rubber that could be torn easily)
The next day, I clipped the head off an old spoke so it left a little hook at the end which I then inserted into the "good" side of the channel (not the one with the stuck object) and started pulling out as much gunk and rubber as possible
Once this side was fairly clean and open I poured a good amount of Ballistol (I swear by this stuff, but I guess any other oil will do too) and used a welding rod (3.2 mm diameter) and pushed it into the channel ("good" side again); even though I thought all the plastic should have been out, there was a lot of resistance so I had to pull the rod out repeatedly, regrease it and use a little hammer to carefully drive it in further, millimeter by millimeter. This step took probably about 45 min. until I finally hit the obstacle
It took quite a while and a lot of careful "hammering" until the obstacle finally gave in and started to move towards the opposite opening from where I could pull it out. It turned out to be a 15 cm long piece of threaded rod!!!
After I was able to pull the welding rod all the way through, I resealed the channel with the wooden plug and filled it again with acetone to soak it overnight again.
Next day I first used a piece of shift cable housing and pushed it through the channel; amazing how much more stuff came out, repeated this until it went through without resistance
Finally I used brake cable housing to remove the last remnants of the hold cable housing
I used a wooden plug since acetone dissolves most plastic or rubber. The first picture below shows all of the gizmos that I used and described above and the last one the piece of rod that was stuck in there.
Lesson learned: change your cables religiously and don't stick any pieces of metal into your cable routing where they get stuck ;)
Hope this will help whoever might end up with a similar issue in the future.
Good luck!
GS
Some of it has already been shared here (http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=140089) but I wanted to create a separate more detailed thread that explains all the steps it took.
So here it goes…
When I got the frame, it looked like there was one long continuos piece of brake cable housing in the cable channel, sticking out on each side of the top tube.
Since there was a significant amount of corrosion on both ends, I soaked them overnight with WD40 in the hope that I would be able to pull the whole cable out the next day.
Wishful thinking…
The only thing that I could remove was the inner spiral of the housing which simply unwound and came out easily but the black plastic housing didn't budge at all.
Once the spiral was gone I took a spoke an poked into the hole from both sides. Even though I greased the spoke it took significant amount of force to push it all the way in which indicated that the plastic of the cable must have changed over time, turning into a softer, rubberlike texture.
When I tried to insert the spoke on the opposite side of the channel, I hit a hard resistance after about 10 centimeters.
Apparently one of the previous owners must have tried the same thing by inserting something in the channel which was now stuck.
So here are the steps I took (including the removal of the stuck object which normally shouldn't be the case but since I had to deal with it, I'll include it anyway):
I closed one end of the channel with a wooden plug
Then I filled the whole channel with acetone and let it soak overnight (I did a test before by putting a piece of the cable housing in acetone for a few hours: it turned from its hard rather "plasticy" texture into a very soft piece of rubber that could be torn easily)
The next day, I clipped the head off an old spoke so it left a little hook at the end which I then inserted into the "good" side of the channel (not the one with the stuck object) and started pulling out as much gunk and rubber as possible
Once this side was fairly clean and open I poured a good amount of Ballistol (I swear by this stuff, but I guess any other oil will do too) and used a welding rod (3.2 mm diameter) and pushed it into the channel ("good" side again); even though I thought all the plastic should have been out, there was a lot of resistance so I had to pull the rod out repeatedly, regrease it and use a little hammer to carefully drive it in further, millimeter by millimeter. This step took probably about 45 min. until I finally hit the obstacle
It took quite a while and a lot of careful "hammering" until the obstacle finally gave in and started to move towards the opposite opening from where I could pull it out. It turned out to be a 15 cm long piece of threaded rod!!!
After I was able to pull the welding rod all the way through, I resealed the channel with the wooden plug and filled it again with acetone to soak it overnight again.
Next day I first used a piece of shift cable housing and pushed it through the channel; amazing how much more stuff came out, repeated this until it went through without resistance
Finally I used brake cable housing to remove the last remnants of the hold cable housing
I used a wooden plug since acetone dissolves most plastic or rubber. The first picture below shows all of the gizmos that I used and described above and the last one the piece of rod that was stuck in there.
Lesson learned: change your cables religiously and don't stick any pieces of metal into your cable routing where they get stuck ;)
Hope this will help whoever might end up with a similar issue in the future.
Good luck!
GS