Rear derailleur cable hanging up

[OakLeaf]

Margo, I didn't mean to sound snippy, I'm just frustrated. They're R700 brifters, for reference.

The inner workings of brifters are a mystery to me. I've looked at the exploded diagrams and the service manual, and they're still a mystery. My expertise in bicycles goes back to friction shifters and ball bearings. Lately I'm more comfortable with throttle and clutch cables (and if those are hanging up, it can kill you ). Generally I'm reasonably mechanically minded if I can get my hands on something, but I'm such an abstract thinker that it's pretty difficult for me to look at a diagram and translate that into reality. If I don't have an experienced mechanic to show me something for the first time, it's almost comical how many times I'll have to look back and forth from the service manual... to the real thing... to the service manual... to the real thing...

Anyway.

Aicabsolut, YES, my initial feeling was that it was the brifter itself. When I try to upshift, if it doesn't "take," it doesn't click at all (not like it was out of adjustment), and if it does click and try to shift it's very soft feeling. Downshifting feels fine.

Could you explain more? When you say it's "starting to go," do you mean that it's going to need to be replaced and flushing it is just a temporary fix? If so, is there any way to estimate how much more service I'd get out of it if I did that? There aren't even 5000 miles on them - although half of those are in Florida, which of course is very hard on anything metal and anything moving - if it's metal and moving, fuhgeddaboudit. But, to the best of what I've been able to see without disassembly, the hoods have done their job, and there was neither sand nor salt inside the brifters when I replaced the brake cable housing and swapped my handlebars out recently.

I WAS careful and very clean doing that, but there's always the possibility that I scr*wed something up in one of those procedures. The shifting problem didn't start immediately afterward, though. (For reference, I replaced the brake cable housing because it was too short with the new stem, not because of any sign of age or wear. It appeared to be in fine condition, no external cracks, no sign of internal corrosion, the brake cable moved freely through it. But as far as the length of the derailleur cable housing is concerned, as I said, I put the old stem back on yesterday, and there were probably 2500 problem free miles with that stem and those cable housings.)

If I were to flush it, how exactly is that carried out? Does the brifter have to come off the handlebars? Is it possible to take the brifter off its bracket (so that the bracket, and more importantly the tape, doesn't need to come off the bars) without it being more trouble than it's worth to re-install it (or a new one)?

How much disassembly needs to happen? Is it going to be much easier with Shimano's return spring installation tool, or does that not have to come apart, or is there a "regular" tool or something around the garage that can substitute for the special tool? When I re-lube, do I have to be sure that all traces of solvent/WD40 are removed first? What type of grease do I use, and where does it go?

I can see that this is the sort of thing that it's probably cheaper to replace than to pay the LBS for labor to service it (plus I'd rather not be without my bike for a week or more waiting for them), but if I can service it, and if I can gain a reasonable amount of useful life out of the brifter by doing so, I'd like to try.

THANKS!!!