Anyone Every Rebuild a 105 9sp STI?

[sean]

Okay, before you tell me how nuts I am and how you spent a million hours and you think I should not even try... TOO LATE.

The shifter was already in a bad state, so it's sorta' a project. However, like most projects I get into, I started too quick and I'm in the predicament of "extra parts".

I've found quite a bit on info and internal pics, as well as step by step for Ultegra and Dura Ace, but 105 is just different enough, that it doesn't totally help.

Does anyone have a resource or pictures of internals for a 105 9sp? Something more than what is on Techdocs?

Any advice would be great.

Thanks.

[Black Dog]

I thought that the shimano internals were not serviceable. Once they go you toss them out. Also there are no sources for spare parts.

[hillzofvalp]

I'm pretty sure you can get spare springs for the lever (at least for 6600 shifters there's a part number)... And there's also a tool for it. I found that if you take a spoke nipple and press it on the end of the spring it works just as well (if you get it positioned optimally and as long as possble.).

Other than that.. There's a locking mechanism on a screw in there that is almost impossible to get back on and at least on my 6600 was impossible to take off in the first place. They're put on by robots and are not meant to come off. I believe they take a special philips screw driver (tamper proof). Removing it and replacing could possibly even jeopardize your safety unless done to specification (or at worst, red lock tite), but I'm no expert.

Unless you have a lot of time on your hands and you just have been wondering what has been in there, go ahead and take it all apart. It is highly unlikely and rather uneconomic to fix indexing is my best guess. Better off spraying it out with some WD40 and seeing if that helps.

[sean]

The general consensus is that they are not rebuildable, but in fact, many are. But the problem is, as mentioned above, spare parts.

From the digging I've done, it seems like the problem with most 7,8,9 STI levers (with the exception of 9sp Dura Ace) is that the internals aren't worn, just gunked up so badly it misses clicks.

This was the case with mine. Getting it apart wasn't an issue. Every screw and whatnot was easily loosened.

I actually stopped by a shop today and the owner gave me a broken 105 shifter to pull apart and get the parts order right. I'm going to document and eventually post somewhere.

[bfd]

If you need to "repair" your STI lever, there's a couple of choices. The easy way is to do the "WD-40" flush:

http://www.chainreactionbicycles.com/noisystilevers.htm

If that doesn't work and you want to disassemble your STI lever, there is a website where a guy disassembled and reassembled both a DA AND an Ultegra STI lever, but I presume the 105 should be similar.

Looks alot more complex than Campy, but appears to be do-able. Probably the hardest part will be finding small parts as Shimano doesn't sell them. Good Luck!

link: http://www.norvil.net/pedal/service/shimanosti/removal.php

DA link:
http://www.norvil.net/pedal/service/shimanosti/duraace9sti/strip.php

Ultegra link: http://www.norvil.net/pedal/service/shimanosti/ultegra9sti/strip.php

[bike22]

it is indeed do-able to dis-assemble, repair, and re-assemble a sti shifter.

i have lots of experience with the 8speed ones that frequently break. there is/was a guy on ebay who you would ship your broken shifter to and he would rebuild it.

sadly i'm not of much help on the rebuild- i sorta figured it out as i went along.

jeweler's screwdrivers, a steady hand, a bunch of paper towels to lay the parts out on in order of removal help lots. and a few hours.