GUIDE: Repairing Shimano 105(5500) STI Levers
Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 8:34 pm
Googling around, I cannot find any guides for rebuilding any 105 shifters. So I thought I may as well make a guide when I took mine apart.
Got these 105(5500) shifters off eBay, and they were dirty as! The levers were scratched up and ugly, and the shifting was fine, but it didnt feel smooth.
Onto dismantling. Once the hoods are removed, you are faced with this panel which is on the inside part of the shifter(where your thumbs go). Just unscrew with a Phillips screwdriver. Inside is just the Flightdeck computer cable.
Use a 2mm allen key to remove the grub screw which holds the pivot on.
Use a small enought screw driver to push out the pivot. Now you can remove the lever from the body. Take care when removing the Flightdeck cable.
Get a flat head screwdriver or something of the sort to pry off the name plate.
Underneath this name plate is another screw. Remove with a Phillips, and then you can pull off that black part.
Next is a 8mm nut. Use an adjustable wrench, a 8mm wrench or a 8mm socket to remove. Theres dirt build up already, and I havent even reached the inside yet.
Flip the lever to the backside to locate a Phillips screw. Remove this screw. Watch out for the washer underneath. More dirt and grease build up. You now can pull off the lever. There is a round spring behind, and make sure this doesnt fly off somewhere(very low chance though).
A 9mm nut is next. Use an adjustable wrench, a 9mm wrench or a 9mm socket to remove. Its surpsing that theres all this grease and dirt out here. The internal gears are the parts that need to be greased, not the outside parts. Note that the round spring will be reattached to the small slit at 7 oclock in the pic.
You can remove the black plate, the silver plastic body part(cable guide) underneath, and a grey ring which connects to the Flightdeck cable.
Now you have two choices, continue dismantling or you can dip it into some sort of degreaser. I chose to no go any further, as everything can be accessed at this point. I chucked it into petrol, and let it soak for a few mins. You can use a toothbrush or something similar to brush away the grease and dirt.
Now once the parts are clean, you can begin to grease the parts. There are only two areas which would need grease.
The bottom side of the shifter.
Hard to see, but its the top side. Lift up the pawl, and grease underneath.
Thats it! Now to rebuild do these steps backwards. Repeat for the other shifter if need be(right hand is slightly different, but it is mostly the same).
The end result after sanding and polishing.
And as an aside, heres a couple finished products of the Soras(3300) which were rebuilt and polished. Hoods were repaired with silicone as well. I cut the right hood all the way down the outer side as it was already half ripped, then taped the innerside and silicone patched it up. Works well so far. Link below was what I read up on:
https://sites.google.com/site/reukpower ... ra-sti-fix" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Oh, and I will offer a service to rebuild STI levers. So far I have done the Sora and the 105 as above, but I am sure that I can get around to doing the others without too many problems. I will also gladly take in any broken shifters, or ones that do not work anymore. Please PM me if youre interested!
Got these 105(5500) shifters off eBay, and they were dirty as! The levers were scratched up and ugly, and the shifting was fine, but it didnt feel smooth.
Onto dismantling. Once the hoods are removed, you are faced with this panel which is on the inside part of the shifter(where your thumbs go). Just unscrew with a Phillips screwdriver. Inside is just the Flightdeck computer cable.
Use a 2mm allen key to remove the grub screw which holds the pivot on.
Use a small enought screw driver to push out the pivot. Now you can remove the lever from the body. Take care when removing the Flightdeck cable.
Get a flat head screwdriver or something of the sort to pry off the name plate.
Underneath this name plate is another screw. Remove with a Phillips, and then you can pull off that black part.
Next is a 8mm nut. Use an adjustable wrench, a 8mm wrench or a 8mm socket to remove. Theres dirt build up already, and I havent even reached the inside yet.
Flip the lever to the backside to locate a Phillips screw. Remove this screw. Watch out for the washer underneath. More dirt and grease build up. You now can pull off the lever. There is a round spring behind, and make sure this doesnt fly off somewhere(very low chance though).
A 9mm nut is next. Use an adjustable wrench, a 9mm wrench or a 9mm socket to remove. Its surpsing that theres all this grease and dirt out here. The internal gears are the parts that need to be greased, not the outside parts. Note that the round spring will be reattached to the small slit at 7 oclock in the pic.
You can remove the black plate, the silver plastic body part(cable guide) underneath, and a grey ring which connects to the Flightdeck cable.
Now you have two choices, continue dismantling or you can dip it into some sort of degreaser. I chose to no go any further, as everything can be accessed at this point. I chucked it into petrol, and let it soak for a few mins. You can use a toothbrush or something similar to brush away the grease and dirt.
Now once the parts are clean, you can begin to grease the parts. There are only two areas which would need grease.
The bottom side of the shifter.
Hard to see, but its the top side. Lift up the pawl, and grease underneath.
Thats it! Now to rebuild do these steps backwards. Repeat for the other shifter if need be(right hand is slightly different, but it is mostly the same).
The end result after sanding and polishing.
And as an aside, heres a couple finished products of the Soras(3300) which were rebuilt and polished. Hoods were repaired with silicone as well. I cut the right hood all the way down the outer side as it was already half ripped, then taped the innerside and silicone patched it up. Works well so far. Link below was what I read up on:
https://sites.google.com/site/reukpower ... ra-sti-fix" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Oh, and I will offer a service to rebuild STI levers. So far I have done the Sora and the 105 as above, but I am sure that I can get around to doing the others without too many problems. I will also gladly take in any broken shifters, or ones that do not work anymore. Please PM me if youre interested!