You are hereForums / By Discipline / Mountain (off road) / MTB Gear / 2008 sram x7 trigger shifter maintenance
2008 sram x7 trigger shifter maintenance
NB: Originally posted elsewhere on the Global Riders Network and appears via syndication.
hey guys was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of instructions to open up and inspect inside my 2008 sram x7 trigger shifter? the product manual on the sram service website just says "the trigger shifters are virtually maintenance free and if you want to look inside consult your local dealer". any help would be much appreciated. churs,
- Login to post comments
- Bookmark & share
Whats wrong with them?
Last time I pulled shifters (XT) apart not only could I not get parts for them, they were an absolute pain in the arse to get back together.
Looking at the parts list, it looks like you can't get any internal parts for them.
http://www.sram.com/_media/techdocs/2011%20SRAM%...
I've got the X9 and the only time I needed to take them apart was when I replaced the outer shifter cable.
There's nothing interesting in side, but if you really want to take them apart... this is what you do:
1. Delicately take them off the handle bars one by one (if you're struggling to do this... please don't continue).
2. holding them completely horizontal i.e. as if you've put them down on a table with the big, long shifter on the bottom, you should see a silver cap on top of the shifter in the shape of a cross.
3. [DO THIS BIT REALLY SLOWLY] Unscrew silver cross shaped thing on top of the shifter. There's no special tool for this, just your thumb and forefinger (although I guess there's many a species that would say our thumb and forefinger are pretty special... I digress...).
4. [DO THIS BIT REALLY DELICATELY, ENSURING THE SHIFTER REMAINS HORIZONTAL] When it's all the way undone, you should be able to slowly lift off the silver cross shaped thingy.
5. [AGAIN, DO THIS BIT REALLY DELICATELY, ENSURING THE SHIFTER REMAINS HORIZONTAL] You should now be able to take off the top half of the shifter exposing the inside of the shifters.
As you should be able to see, there is naff all to adjust. There is also a big spring threatening to go "pang" in your eye ball. I carefully took a picture of it once I opened it just in case it did fall apart I should be able to put it back together. Alhtough the parts catalogue jaseh kindly found may help with that.
Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss further.
He said X7 - they don't come apart like that! Should really take the manufacturers advice on this one.
... which is buy a new set.
If you can't get them to function and want to save some $$, I have a set sitting on my shelf that has only done a couple of hundred km of commuting work.
They were only changed because I went to XT dual control so that both my bikes were the same.
Tough crowd...
yeah i think the x7's are different to x9 but appreciate your helpful attitude anyway cooksbridge dude. jimbo...what do you mean by take manufacturer's advice? i'll buy a new set before i have some kid at a store do a worse job than i would. is it really that hard?
If you can't figure out how to pull them apart yourself then you're best to see if someone at your lbs (who does this stuff for a living)can help. You'll probably end up having to replace them anyway, so what can it hurt. The "kid" that does the work on your bike may be a guy like me with years of experience as a bike mechanic who will probably know i little more about the insides of a derailleur than you do and may have old broken ones that have been kept to pilfer parts from as you can't buy them.
so jimbo... are you going to tell me what's inside or not?? (i can figure out how to take them apart) (i'm an engineer and i can service a bike better than most bike shops mechanics). i just wanted to hear other people's experiences...
Environmental engineer (does that count?) If you're better than most bike mechanics then you shouldn't need any help. I have given advice, as have others, apparently we're not saying what you want to hear though.
... is "not user serviceable". You know that when even they won;t undo the casing screws in return for money, it's not worth the hassle compared to cost of replacement.
FYI, they are assembled by robots.
For the answer, as Jase said. What's wrong with them?
I've had X9, well since there was X9, and never had one problem so I'd really like to know.
If you go to that link I posted it shows a semi exploded diagram of an X9 shifter. All that is in there are a few springs,pawls and ratchets, nothing too technical but considering you can't buy parts for them if you lost or broke something your up for a new one.
Still curious as to why you want to pull them apart, do you want to see if you can improve them or is there something wrong? If they have stopped working or are slipping the pawls and ratcheting mechanism could be worn out or most likely a busted spring due to how fine they are.
And, just to beat my own drum I have 4 mechanical trades and have worked in and have owned a bike shop.
hey guys, there's not necessarily anything wrong with them. i've just been having gluggy shifting of late but i'm pretty sure it because the bike was filthy (muck on the cable) and i'm sure a good clean and maybe replacing cable housing will do the trick. out of my curiosity though, i also wanted to have a look inside the shifter for the first time and just be able to eliminate it as a source of problems (even though it would be easier to clean and maintain cable housing first), i just wanted to explore (preventative maintenance)! wanted to see if any mud was able to make its way in their over the last few years.
re-iterating what i already knew in my opening post and recommending that i take them to a bike shop is not the advice i wanted to hear in a DIY forum.
Well ignore the advice, go ahead and pull your shifters apart.
Just pull them apart already, I'm in sales so probably haven't even earned the right to own those tool thingies used to pull them apart.. but i did... in my case nothing fixable in there, so 15min later I'm on CRC ordering a new set.
From what I recall; they come apart easy enough, and a ball of fun can be had putting them back together (if you do more than just take the cover off). in fact my only tip would be to make sure the kiddies are off watching the wiggles or something, coz you don't really want them to hear all that swearing do you?
this guy makes it look easier than it really is. (mine was a little different though)
http://www.sicklines.com/tech/howto/sram-x9-shif...
thanks for your advice guys, saves me a lot of hassle