Shimano Alivio (1990s) 7 speed shift lever

[LittleGreyCat]

Bike - Dawes Backstreet hybrid ladies bike with Alivio 7 * 3 speed groupset.
Same as on my 1990s MTB.
Combined brake levers and rapid fire shift levers.

The RHS shifter has stopped working - will shift up but not down.

I am pretty sure that this is the plastic cogs inside the shifter wearing out.
This is what happened to my MTB.
I was fortunate to find replacement Alivio shifters of the same vintage on eBay a few years back and replaced the old ones. Shifters now working fine.

However I can't seem to find any old style Alivio shifters on eBay at the moment.

Can anyone recommend a suitable alternative?

It is my daughter's bike and I'm trying to get it all working before advertising it for sale so I'm a bit cautious about having un-matched shifters.

Newer Alivio seems a bit tacky (I know that the quality of a brand name within the Shimano range is not always consistent).

I have seen 7 * 3 twist grip shifters for a remarkably low price - a pair of these would match and might also suit a hybrid.
However, a remarkably low price always rings alarm bells.

Any advice welcome.

Cheers

LGC

[Brucey]

those shifters are lubricated in the factory using a grease that dries out. When this happens you get shifts like the ones you have right now.

If you spray inside liberally with WD40 (or similar) and then 'exercise' the lever ('flicking it' often helps) it will normally start working again. Then adding some oil will help it the shift lever to work for a long time before drying out again.

If you have ridden about 50000 miles you might have worn the shifter out, and other breakages (accidents excepting) are rare. By contrast they very often go sticky as you describe.

BTW if you do need to replace them almost any shimano 7s/8s shifter will work OK.

cheers

[LittleGreyCat]

Thanks Brucey - spot on!

Copious amounts of WD40 and the shifter sprang back into life.

I am now having serious Deja Vu as it is about a year or more since I last touched this bike.

Right shifter working fine and dandy now.

Left shifter is not, despite similar treatment.

Symptoms are:

Start in (1), click shifter to go up, mech moves a bit and green shift indicator goes to about 1.5.
Click again and green marker goes to (2) and with current adjustment chain goes onto middle ring.
Try and click again and there is a tiny bit of movement but no more.

Click shifter to go down and there is a big 'clunk' and the green marker and the chain go down to (1) - so not a direct reverse of going up.

Does this (IIRC) without the cable attached to the front mech.

So this doesn't seem to be quite the same problem as the RHS where the indicator moves correctly when the shifter changes.

Again. any suggestions welcome.

Cheers

LGC

[Brucey]

the front shifter sounds like the cable needs adjusting; the mech should be centred over the middle chainring in '2'.

With the shifter in '1' and the mech over the front sprocket, there should be little or no slack in the cable. Lots of slack means that the cable has probably pulled through the front mech clamp bolt, and it needs resetting.

If you are fuzzy on the procedure, I expect there is a half-decent tutorial on the parktools website and/or sheldon brown explaining how to do the adjustment.

BTW a sticky mechanism may lead to selection difficulties too, so more WD40, excercising etc can't hurt.

cheers

[LittleGreyCat]

Thanks, but leaving adjustment aside the problem is that the shifter, disconnected from any mech, will not click through the (1) (2) (3) positions.

It will do (1), (1.5), (2) going up and (2), (1) going down.

So there is an issue with the shifter mechanism itself.

Cheers

LGC

[Brucey]

in which case more WD40 may be the the thing. Note that the cable tension may be required to allow the shifter to move in the right way if the shifter is sticky; the internal return spring may not be strong enough by itself.

BTW do be aware that the gear indicator is not itself 100% reliable; occasionally the shifter will work OK but the indicator will be telling porkies.

cheers