I went for a ride last week and toward the end noticed that the derailur wasn't shifting as crisp as it used to. I've been running the same XT derailur for the last 4 years now and it's seen a good amount of use so I decided maybe it was time to take it apart and clean it up, so I did and I figured it would work better. Well it doesn't. Yesterday I went and rode and I noticed that the bolt that holds the upper pulley was rubbing the spokes in the granny gear and the cage was at an angle, almost parallel to the spokes. Adjusting the limit screw would make it so that I couldn't shift into the big cog as would adjusting the barrel screw. I'm pretty sure that my hanger isn't bent because I didn't hit anything that could have bent it and it looks pretty darn straight. I'm a pretty good mechanic and being an engineer makes it especially frustrating to look at something and say it looks like it should work then it doesn't.
I didn't take apart the parallelogram when I cleaned the derailur, is it possible that the pins have bent and would a bent pin cause the problem I'm describing? I know there's something wrong and I don't really have the money to buy a new derailur at the moment but if I could narrow it down to one part maybe I could scrounge a replacement part from a LBS. I've looked it over top to bottom and everything looks normal except the cage hangs at an angle, somebody help!
I didn't take apart the parallelogram when I cleaned the derailur, is it possible that the pins have bent and would a bent pin cause the problem I'm describing? I know there's something wrong and I don't really have the money to buy a new derailur at the moment but if I could narrow it down to one part maybe I could scrounge a replacement part from a LBS. I've looked it over top to bottom and everything looks normal except the cage hangs at an angle, somebody help!
