Q: How to avoid corrosion/rust/gunk in shifter cables?

On Sep 21, 6:29*am, Peter Cole wrote:
Borrall Wonnell wrote:
Last year I re-built a MTB in preparation for fall/winter. *I used 5mm
housing (brake/shift) unlubricated stainless cables, and followed the
'rules' for good cable routing.

Shifting performance degraded rapidly after the first couple of months
due to corrosion/rust/gunk in the last section of housing connected to
the rear derailleur (metal ferrules). *The cable stop in my derailleur
is full of rust too. *No problems with the rest of the drivetrain.

Is there a sensible way to 'seal' the lowest section of housing to
prevent this from happening? *5mm plastic ferrules? *Rubber gaskets?
Heatshrink? *Grease? *I live in a wet climate, which compounds the
problem. *LBS recommends Gore Ride-On (but also says the new version
isn't as good as the originals and I'm not interested in spending $75
on a solution).

Ideas/recommendations? *I'm thinking that heatshrink may work for the
section of housing connected to the derailleur, but I can't think of
anything to use for the other end (i.e. the first exposed cable
section on the seatstay). *Maybe full-length housing, or a length of
housing that runs up to the cable stop nearest the seat tube?

I favor full length housing for that kind of environment.

The "final loop" on rear derailer cables is usually the most
troublesome. On bikes that I haven't run full housing, I just replace it
fairly frequently.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I agree w/ just about everything stated above.
But I don't believe any one mentioned Stainless Steel "slick" cables.
Some "slick" cables
seem slicker than others. I should buy a non slick cable, & mark it
for comparison
sake. Certainly the use of any, slick or not slick, SS cables would
help along w/ the other suggestions.

One can special order those little end tit bellows that fit where the
rr. der. cable exits
the last sliding cable part of the der. Look in Shimano's tech web
pages under
exploded views of their better derailleurs. I have no idea how far
they trickle down
the price chain.

If you submerge your bike to above the height of the rr. der, I don’t
think anything can
Help.

Gravity, water, & Murphy’s law are one hell of a combo. to beat.

Peter Cole wrote:
Peter S. wrote:
Silicone spray cans can be had almost everywhere, but
Silicone based grease can be harder to find.

I buy it at the auto parts store. There it's called "dielectric grease"
-- used for ignition wire boots typically. The can I bought was
pressurized like Cheese Whiz, which didn't work so well. I pulled out
the valve & use a Popsicle stick to dispense.

How does Cheeze Whiz work as a cable lubricant?

--
Tom Sherman - 42.435731,-83.985007

On Sep 21, 7:37*pm, Tom Sherman °_°
wrote:

How does Cheeze Whiz work as a cable lubricant?


Pretty good in areas with a low squirrel count. But get the good
stuff, that's 99% cheese and only 1% whiz.

Borrall Wonnell wrote:

Last year I re-built a MTB in preparation for fall/winter. *I used 5mm
housing (brake/shift) unlubricated stainless cables, and followed the
'rules' for good cable routing.

Shifting performance degraded rapidly after the first couple of months
due to corrosion/rust/gunk in the last section of housing connected to
the rear derailleur (metal ferrules). *The cable stop in my derailleur
is full of rust too. *No problems with the rest of the drivetrain.

Do you ride in salt?

If so, move somewhere better. Presto, no shifting problems. And the
girls are better looking too.

Chalo

Chalo Colina wrote:
Borrall Wonnell wrote:
Last year I re-built a MTB in preparation for fall/winter. I used 5mm
housing (brake/shift) unlubricated stainless cables, and followed the
'rules' for good cable routing.

Shifting performance degraded rapidly after the first couple of months
due to corrosion/rust/gunk in the last section of housing connected to
the rear derailleur (metal ferrules). The cable stop in my derailleur
is full of rust too. No problems with the rest of the drivetrain.

Do you ride in salt?

If so, move somewhere better. Presto, no shifting problems. And the
girls are better looking too.

I would rather have snow and ice, than heat and humidity. Thankfully,
fall is here.

--
Tom Sherman - 42.435731,-83.985007

On Sep 22, 2:24*am, Chalo wrote:
Borrall Wonnell wrote:

Do you ride in salt?

If so, move somewhere better. *Presto, no shifting problems. *And the
girls are better looking too.


Chalo, you must be psychic. I'm serious. How could you possibly know
about the girls in my area??

Borrall Wonnell wrote:
Last year I re-built a MTB in preparation for fall/winter. *I used 5mm
housing (brake/shift) unlubricated stainless cables, and followed the
'rules' for good cable routing.


As usual, thanks for all the helpful responses. Here are a few
comments:

1) I use 5mm housing because that's what my LBS carries. Probably
because 5mm is 'supposed' to shift better in cruddy conditions. Odd
that there are no 5mm plastic ferrules. I may switch back to 4mm for
kicks.

2) There is some rust at the derailleur end (inside the cable stop).
Probably due to water running down the housing into the cable stop. A
bit of grease (on the outside of the ferrule) would do the job here.
The derailleur does have a rubber boot/bellows on the lower side of
the cable stop.

3) Jagwire raincoats...exactly what I'm looking for, but apparently
difficult to find. The alternative is to run full cable housing
(which I may try instead).

4) I was under the impression that lubing/greasing cables was a bad
thing, resulting in similar shifting degradation over time.

5) I don't have any Cheeze Whiz. Even if I did, the squirrels here
are too polite to steal it.

On Sep 22, 12:24*am, Chalo wrote:
Borrall Wonnell wrote:

Last year I re-built a MTB in preparation for fall/winter. *I used 5mm
housing (brake/shift) unlubricated stainless cables, and followed the
'rules' for good cable routing.

Shifting performance degraded rapidly after the first couple of months
due to corrosion/rust/gunk in the last section of housing connected to
the rear derailleur (metal ferrules). *The cable stop in my derailleur
is full of rust too. *No problems with the rest of the drivetrain.

Do you ride in salt?

If so, move somewhere better. *Presto, no shifting problems. *And the
girls are better looking too.

Chalo

The girls are better looking in Canada, but you can't tell by looking.

On 09/21/2009 09:24 PM, Chalo wrote:
Borrall Wonnell wrote:

Last year I re-built a MTB in preparation for fall/winter. �I used 5mm
housing (brake/shift) unlubricated stainless cables, and followed the
'rules' for good cable routing.

Shifting performance degraded rapidly after the first couple of months
due to corrosion/rust/gunk in the last section of housing connected to
the rear derailleur (metal ferrules). �The cable stop in my derailleur
is full of rust too. �No problems with the rest of the drivetrain.

Do you ride in salt?

If so, move somewhere better. Presto, no shifting problems. And the
girls are better looking too.

Chalo

do you ride outside of a nice big dry tent? circus clowns don't -
that's why they don't have shifter cable problems.

people outside of circus tents otoh, wet or dry, get shifter problems if
they don't use a system to keep the gunk out of the cable liner like
shimano ferrules with the o-ring seals. but you're a professional bike
mechanic aren't you chalo, so you know /all/ about this stuff.

jim beam wrote:

Chalo wrote:

Borrall Wonnell wrote:

Last year I re-built a MTB in preparation for fall/winter. I used 5mm
housing (brake/shift) unlubricated stainless cables, and followed the
'rules' for good cable routing.

Shifting performance degraded rapidly after the first couple of months
due to corrosion/rust/gunk in the last section of housing connected to
the rear derailleur (metal ferrules). The cable stop in my derailleur
is full of rust too. No problems with the rest of the drivetrain.

Do you ride in salt?

If so, move somewhere better. *Presto, no shifting problems. *And the
girls are better looking too.

do you ride outside of a nice big dry tent? *circus clowns don't -
that's why they don't have shifter cable problems.

people outside of circus tents otoh, wet or dry, get shifter problems if
they don't use a system to keep the gunk out of the cable liner like
shimano ferrules with the o-ring seals. *but you're a professional bike
mechanic aren't you chalo, so you know /all/ about this stuff.

We got 2-1/2" of rain this morning in Austin. I rode to work in it.
It's clean water, though-- cleaner than out of the tap-- and it has
never managed to fossilize my cables in their housings.

My cables become old and begin to break strands at their anchor points
without ever having been stuck or draggy in their housings. That's
what happens when they are routed appropriately through lined housings
and used regularly. They don't fail from anything else, so they
eventually fail at the stress concentration at the cable clamp, or at
a bend inside a poorly-designed lever such as Shimano STI or Rapid
Fire.

That's why I prefer aluminum 4mm cable ferrules to the stock Shimano
plastic junk, seals or no. Thick-walled aluminum ferrules are strong
and do not become flared, pinched, bent, split, or ruptured in normal
use. Plastic ferrules can be acceptable when new, but eventually they
crack or allow longitudinal housing strands to poke through. Thick
aluminum 4mm ferrules don't do that (unless you ride in a salty Hell
perhaps).

Cables become stuck or eroded inside housings through severe neglect
(being left disused in the weather for a long time), electrolyte-laden
filth (e.g. riding on salted roads in Hell, WI), poor routing that
holds water, and/or unlined housing. I have worked on thousands of
bikes, and all the stuck cables I've seen have been attributable to
one or more of the above-- but _not_ attributable to simple exposure
to rainy conditions.

Chalo