Replacing a gear cable - any ideas?

[Glow worm]

Surely it can't be that effing hard but it seems well beyond me! I'm trying to replace the gear cable on my from 3 ring derailliuer or however the hell it's spelt. I've detatched the old cable from the deraillier thing and I have a shimano 'Alivio' gear change lever on the handlebars but the big problem is I can't see any possible way of getting the broken cable out of this unit.

I've just spent an hour in the pissing rain outside thinking it would be a doddle- I've done brake cables loads of times but never gear ones on this particuar bike. Put it this way, I've used language that would have made Bernard Manning blush, esp after losing two microscopic screws in the effing grass. I've looked at the shimano techie website for drawings but the parts numbers on there don't correspond with anything I can see on the bike.

If anyone can help- or point me in the direction of a helpful site that would be great as my wife is going to sleep with other men unless I cheer up.
Cheers,
Giles.

Mutter, sigh, mutter, grumble, huff, mutter...............

 

[HLaB]

Try Bicycle Tutor, He does quite good piece on Rapid fire Shifters

 

[byegad]

Sheldon Brown is a good source of help too.

 

[gbb]

If that's the ST-EF shiters shiFters /brake levers, there's one or two (IIRC) tiny phillips screws on the black cap on top of the shifters. Take that cap off and it reveals the mechanism underneath. Push the cable into the shifter, it'll only go a bit, then you can see the nipple, then gently lever out the nipple with a very small screwdriver or similar and withdraw the cable.

 

[Glow worm]

Thanks for the tips guys- will follow them all up later. Luckily I'm at home today so won't need the bike until tomorrow. I'm beginnning to make Frank Spenser look competent at this stuff!

 

[John the Monkey]

What gbb said.

Shimano's technical docs site is a goldmine for this sort of stuff - grab the pdf and print it out, they're generally very helpful.