Serious question, has anyone else had a customer's vintage Campagnolo derailleur spring snap mid-adjustment?

I was in my home shop in Tacoma last Tuesday, and the tiny spring in a 1980s Nuovo Record rear derailleur just gave out with a sharp 'ping' while I was setting the limit screw, so I spent three hours carefully hand-filing a replacement from a piece of spring steel I had in my salvage bin, and it actually shifts perfectly now.

3 comments

3 Comments

willow_ellis917d ago

Ngl that kind of hands-on fix is getting rarer. It reminds me how everything now is just a swap-out part, even for simple stuff. There's a real skill in actually making the thing work again yourself. Feels like we're losing that patience for repair.

josephmurray1mo ago

Wait, you filed a new spring by hand? That's wild, but I'm pretty sure the spring that usually goes is the return spring in the body, not the one on the limit screw. Those limit screws just stop the movement, they don't have a spring. Maybe you meant the pivot spring? Either way, making a new one is some next-level shop work.

casey_fox681mo ago

Tacoma on a Tuesday sounds rough. JosephMurray has a point about which spring it was though.