campagnolo rear derailleur hanger bolt broken/ fix

[*guyverfan]

anyone into cycling for commuting, proffessional or recreation?

 

i've just decided to get back into recreational cycling whenever i have any spare time on the weekends. and instead of dusting the 10+years of dust and cobwebs off my mountain bike, decided to put together a road bike since none of the bike stores had my size.(thats life having a short inside leg!)

 

anyway, mounting the rear derailleur, campagnolo give a torque spec of 15nm,(this is for thier 2piece cast alloy,hollow spring loaded bolt found on 2011+ derailleur.) which i found almost near impossible and at the very limit of this bolt.(previous bolts were one piece made from titanium or steel)

(by the way, i've been a qualified automotive technician for over 20years and am well verse in using hand tools!)

 

so naturally, this bolt fails and breaks, checking online and i found this to be a common problem. my biggest problem was that the bolt is not available to the public for replacement and the part requires to be sent to a repair agent to be replaced(WWWWWHHHHHAAAATTTTT!!!!)

 

me, being in the bottom of the world(australia), there's only two listed authorised repair agents, both interstate! one has gone out of business and the other only deals with bike stores and does not sell direct to public.

the cost to have this repaired + return postage was almost the same as awhole new derailleur!(ofcourse the lbs and repair agent add their %)

 

so, a little research and i found that the dimensions of the derailleur body which houses the bolt are the same through out the campy range. and that their record, super record and athena eps derailleurs use a one piece bolt, which is available to purchase seperately.

 

parts requiered for the fix;

   rd-re001:- bolt

 10rd-re015:- circlip(required to lock the new bolt in housing and acts as washer between hanger on frame)

 

the broken bolt and the ring which we will reuse as its the same through the range.

 

derailleur main body, the spring is reuseable.

 

new parts, c clip and bolt, comes fitted with o rings

 

visual check

 

mount on frame by just a few threads to leave a gap

 

tie strap the cage to give us more clearance for the next step.

 

a flat blade screw driver can be used to push/rotate the ring around past the stop on the body.

 

while holding the ring firmly in place with a screw driver(some force required as spring is preloaded now) thread in bolt until both stops on ring and body have made contact. still leaving enough gap, install c clip.

(preloading the spring and inserting the c clip is obviously easier when mounted to frame)

 

bolt and c clip installed, i like to use alittle thread locker(loctite blue for servicable items) keeps threads clean and sealed

 

derailluer mounted using specified torque of 15nm, which a solid, thicker one piece bolt has no problems being torqued too, as bolt stretch would be minimal, so fatigue would be minimal and servicability of part is extended.

 

 

so, if anyone comes into the same problem, here you go, a nice easy fix which may save you some dollars. or you're like me and don't have an available authourised repair agent around the corner and would have to pay two middle men a commission plus return postage to have an item fixed that has an inbuilt obselesence from factory.

happy trails!