Rohloff Gears Jamming

[Fred A-M]

After 8 years of near faultless riding with the RST - the first signs of a problem on the commute home this evening.  Thankfully the forum is on hand hopefully to save the day..... :-) 

Basically the shifter (hopefully not the Rohloff itself) seems to be jamming, particularly when shifting upwards (ie between gears 14 - 1 direction).   Easier when shifting down but definite signs of resistance in inverse direction.  Seems significantly harder to shift when stationary! 

It could be that there's rust in the shifter cables as I have to leave the bike outside regularly for the first time in its history in a secure area at work.  I ordered some replacements years ago but looks such an operation replacing that I put it off.   Overdue an oil change by about 6 months (low mileage as been doing about 40 miles a week for last 9 months) so have ordered replacement oil.   Hub probably has about 15,000 miles on it, hoping very much it's not the first sign of a need to change the internal wire.

I sense that with my hugely diminished mechanical skills (due to having to do virtually next to nil maintenance since becoming an RST owner) that I'm in for a bit of an ordeal!

Could anyone summarise possible shifting problems with the Rohloff or summarise a diagnosis routine that could help me narrow down the cause?   Any pearls of wisdom & general pointers gratefully received.

Cheers

Fred       

[Danneaux]

Hi Fred!

So sorry to hear you're having troubles shifting...but they surely took a long time to arrive! That's encouraging in itself. My guess is a rough cable-housing near the shifter.

Rohloff's site has a link for trouble shooting here: http://www.rohloff.de/en/technology/workshop/trouble_shooting/
...that in turn links to the manual. You'll want Chapter> Service And Repairs > Appendix > Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting starts on page 119. Download page is here: http://www.rohloff.de/en/service/downloads/documentation/index.html

Hope this helps.

Best,

Dan.

[Dave Whittle Thorn Workshop]

My bet would be on the internal cable having frayed and now requires replacement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAW6IOew0qE&list=PLA22F2D0EC3FCF239 

[Fred A-M]

Hi Dan and Dave

Thanks both for your respective replies and intuitive guesses - which both suggest a cable problem.   Dan, thanks for your RTFM pointer   and for putting it right under my nose with relevant page references!  That will save some time as I'm uncertain as to the whereabouts of my hard copy!  

I'll report back!

Cheers

Fred

[JimK]

Can you disconnect the cables from the hub and then see how freely can you twist the shifter? I expect the hub can be shifted on its own, too. I have the external shift box on my Nomad so I am not sure just how the RST mechanism works.

[JimK]

Egads! It's a veritable plague! My shifter is jamming now!

I're pretty sure it's the shifter or anyway very close to it. When I disconnect the EXT box the shifter still doesn't turn freely. I can force it to turn but it's like scraping somehow. There is no play at all so I don't think it's down at the EXT box.

I fear I may have to learn how to install new cables!

[JimK]

Watching this video:

http://www.rohloff.de/en/technology/workshop/videos/twist_shifter_grip_replacement/index.html

Maybe somehow my grip is just sticking. I pulled off the O-ring. Now, how do I get that grip off? The video makes it look easy. Maybe I am getting to the problem!

[JimK]

Ach! Double trouble! Trying to pull my grip off, the whole cable pull mechanism want to come along. I can see that inside the pulley the cable is totally frayed! Oh, I fear I am in for a bit of work!

[in4]

Is that by Bob Marley?   

[JimK]

Well, it's a frayed cable, that much is clear! Already, though, the whole job is quite off the textbook track. SNAFU. Damn the torpedoes!

[JimK]

It's a miracle! But I seem to have 14 gears back, 13 nice clicks. Very happy to have those nice videos!

[JimK]

That 200 mm cable measuring jig looked nifty so I made myself one out of a brass tube from the hardware store down the street. Enough things to worry about, which one is 1 and which one is 14, are the housing ends properly seated up at the shifter... so making the measurement more fool proof seemed like a good investment of $2.50 and 10 minutes. Yeah the hardware store is right by the bike shop so I could get the tube on the way back from getting the shifting cables.

[Danneaux]

It's a miracle! But I seem to have 14 gears back, 13 nice clicks.

Wonderful news, Jim, after some uncertain times there.

You've done really well -- sounds as if you're ready to go back on the road; really nice to have the experience under your belt for the future.

All the best,

Dan.

[JimK]

- sounds as if you're ready to go back on the road;

Funny, I just took the Fearless Nomad out for maybe a quarter mile, just up the little road that the bike shop uses too for test rides. Just great fun to have a bike that works!

On my 20 mile ride this morning I noticed a little stiffness at one point in the shifting after just a mile or two. It starting getting worse it a sort of one step forward two steps back kind of way. By about mile 12 the shifting was just nasty. I could force it through most of the range so the riding wasn't bad, but the index was gone and so sometimes I would be a bit between gears so I worried about the hub.

Yeah now I don't have to be quite so fearful of that particular service operation! Though I am surely in no hurry to do it again!

[JimK]

In several details my bike, which is only from 2010, does not match the Rohloff videos. The Rohloff manual that came with my bike seems to match the details of my bike, i.e. is different than the videos. At the bottom of the title page of my manual appears "WS 2.13E 2008-02".

One Rohloff video shows the shifter rubber grip sliding off as a separate piece from the actual cable pulley. On my bike the rubber grip and the cable pulley are one piece.

The Rohloff video that shows how to route the cables through the shifter... it shows some pieces that slide out of the shifter and into which the cable housing ends fit. On my bike those interface parts are screwed in. When those parts are removed, you can turn the shifter and see where the cable ends fit into the pulley. That business in the video about turning between 6 and 7 doesn't seem to apply.

I just left the existing cable housings on my bike and replaced only the cables. I wonder how often these parts need to be replaced.

On pg 110 of my manual, under Repairs: 3. Changing the grip rubber, there is a POINTER:

"The shifter cables have to be removed from the twist shifter first before it is possible to replace the rubber grip. Before the shifter cables are removed, the ends that were clamped in the female connectors (internal gear mech) or the cable pulley (external gear mech) must be cut so that the frayed ends of these cables to not damage the nylon liners when being removed."

Ooops, I didn't see this in time! My ends weren't too frayed so I hope they didn't do much damage! But anyway this pointer is good evidence that putting in a new cable doesn't usually require new cable housings.