Front Derailleur Stuck

[Nevica]

Hello,

Hell, I have an Sram X3 front derailleur on my hybrid bide. Unfortunately, it is stuck on the biggest cog and will not shift. I am not sure but I think that the derailleur has corroded somewhere in its mechanism. (The bike is only about 1 year old). I have ridden it a lot over the winter months and it has had a lot of muck and water on it.

The handlebar gear changing mechanism works ok and the gear wire moves.

Can anyone suggest a good way to get rid of the rust. I have tried WD40 and GT80 but yo no avail.

Thanks,

Nevica

[GeorgeET]

Do not know where you are but if in USA following products are available. Disconnect cable at dérailleur end and move manually while adding penetrant. Than look at Alex's video on this site in repair guide on how to tune it up. Suggest cleaning the back too.

"Machinist's Workshop magazine actually tested penetrants for break
out torque on rusted nuts. Significant results! They arranged a subjective
test of all the popular penetrants with the control being the torque
required to remove the nut from a "scientifically rusted" environment.

Type of penetrating oil ..... Average load

None ................................ 516 pounds

WD-40 ............................ 238 pounds

PB Blaster .......................214 pounds

Liquid Wrench .............. 127 pounds

Kano Kroil .................... 106 pounds

ATF-Acetone mix......... 53 pounds

The ATF-Acetone mix was a "home brew" mix of 50 - 50 automatic
transmission fluid and acetone.

Note the "home brew" was better than any commercial product in this
one particular test. A local machinist group mixed up a batch and all now
use it with equally good results. Note also that "Liquid Wrench" is about as
good as "Kroil" for about 20% of the price."

[Bill]

Or if you have some 3-1 household oil saturate it with that and leave it sit overnight.

[trevgbb]

Once the rust bug has struck it is difficult to recover smooth operation again as the surfaces will be rough.
Personally. if you use the bike a lot, I would replace it, although you could try removing it from the bike and working it by hand whilst lubing it.

I would also have a word with your supplier or Sram themselves, as even though it may be out of warranty, 1 year is a short time for this amount of corrosion with modern lubricants unless the bike has been subjected to very severe conditions or you have used a jet washer on it frequently, if you do use one, keep it away from all bearings and relube after.

http://www.sram.com/_media/techdocs/FD_XGen_3_Ins_07_04.pdf