Derailleur advice for a complete idiot!

[volenti2001]

Hi, I have just bought an older road bike running Shimano 600 gears. As part of my reconditioning of the bike I decided to install Sora levers and new derailleur cables. I have eight cogs in the rear.

I disconnected the old rear cable when the chain was on the smallest cog and chainwheel. I made sure the new cable was tight when I tighted the holding screw

I seemed to have messed up somewhere as I cannot get the chain to shift into the two largest cogs. The right lever will click up so far and then I am just pumping fresh air, with nothing happening. I have adjusted the L screw out as far as it will go but the chain is still not going into the large cogs. The rear derailleur will only move inwards to a certain point and no further, even with the L screw adjusted. There seems to be no problem getting the chain into the smaller cogs.

Any clues as to where I fouled up? I have looked at a couple of repair books but the information, to my mind at least, seems very limited with not much extra help for a problem such as this.

Thanks for any advice...John

 

[gclark8]

Did you change the rear derailleur to an 8 speed?

 

[PeterF]

Assuming it's an 8 speed derailleur, it sounds like your cables aren't tight enough. Shift onto a bigger cog in the back. Without pedaling hit the up-shift paddle a couple times and the cable should become loose. Pull up the slack and retighten. Adjust this until you can shift through the whole cassette. The H and L screws are to set the ranges so you don't drop a chain. Have fun.

 

[volenti2001]

Assuming it's an 8 speed derailleur, it sounds like your cables aren't tight enough. Shift onto a bigger cog in the back. Without pedaling hit the up-shift paddle a couple times and the cable should become loose. Pull up the slack and retighten. Adjust this until you can shift through the whole cassette. The H and L screws are to set the ranges so you don't drop a chain. Have fun.

Thanks Peter

 

[volenti2001]

Did you change the rear derailleur to an 8 speed?

Bike is eight speed, and I am now using a Sora eight speed shifter.