Have you had a good mechanic look at it? Here are three different problems that I think would cause that symptom
1. If you took the shifter apart, and removed the thin washer under the shifter, and put it all back together. The effective stack height of the system will be shorter. When you tighten the screw, you'll be tightening it against the end of the post, not squeezing the stack. With no squeezing force on the stack, there's no friction. You'd pull it to get it onto the big ring, but no friction will allow it to drop back down. 2. If the spring_ratchet mechanism inside was rusty or otherwise binding, it could be stuck "open" and not engaging in the toothed drive-ring. The stack is squeezed but the friction part is not engaged because the ratchet driver isn't engaged with that drive ring. A good mechanic would notice that the micro-clicking sound is gone when you pull cable, and the micro-ratchet feel at your fingers is also gone. It's just smooth. 3. If the spring-ratchet mechanism has just failed, same as #2. If the rachet part broke or fell out, , or if the spring failed or fell out, same problem 4. The plasic washer at the top of the stack fits securely onto the end of the post. The shape of the hole is like a circle with two flats on it. It has to line up with the end of the post to slide onto the end of the post. Only then can tightening the bolt squeeze the stack and cause the necessary friction. If the assembly became very loose, and that plastic washer came off the end of the post and rotated, and then you just tightened the bolt, you could be just clamping the washer to the top of the post, not sliding it down the length of the post. The result again is the stack is not being compressed. Bill Lindsay El Cerrito CA On Monday, May 21, 2018 at 6:45:09 PM UTC-7, Jon BALER wrote: > > The bolt loosening is no longer the problem. > > The problem is now that there is no internal friction in the shifter even > with the bolt fully tightened. The front derailleur spring pulls the shift > lever down no matter how much I tighten the bolt. > > > > -------- Original message -------- > From: LBleriot <gary....@att.net <javascript:>> > Date: 5/21/18 9:37 PM (GMT-05:00) > To: RBW Owners Bunch <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>> > Subject: [RBW] ird power ratchet shifters keep loosening > > +1 on the beeswax recommendation. A tiny piece softened in your fingers > and pushed into the threads will create the friction you need to keep the > bolt from loosening. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/rbw-owners-bunch/7RhsCNmaJ_0/unsubscribe > . > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com > <javascript:>. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
