Rear Shifting Problems!

[cricket0140]

OK, so a while ago I noticed to get into the lowest gear (largest sprocket) on the rear I had to apply extra pressure onto the shift-lever.
Now my bike does not even get past fourth gear, this is whilst it is on supposed 1st gear (on the shifter). At the moment it only has a range of 3 available sprockets to use. Also, on the gear shifter, it only goes from 1, to 2, then only just onto 3 (it feels extremely weak, rather than 'clicking' like the front gear shifter does), the rear shifter is not able to go into 4.
I decided to open up the rear shifter and see if there was anything wrong, well, the attached pictures could probably paint a better picture than I can, the cable seems to have detached from whatever it was attached to. Not sure if this is the sole cause of the problems but it seems like a fairly big issue. I've messed around with the low and high limits, plus all of the other adjustments on the rear derailleur but to no avail. Hopefully I have explained this good enough along with the pictures.
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[Painkiller]

your cable housing has punched its way thru the shifter stop. new cable housing and end cap. My only concern would be that there may be something wrong with the shifter casing at the stop area for the hole to be big enough to let this happen in the first place. I am not a fan of plastic ferrules/endcaps. replace the housing and use metal caps. reset your limit screws properly. replace the cable also and the housing loop to the derailleur

[cricket0140]

(10-17-2014, 06:07 AM)painkiller Wrote:  your cable housing has punched its way thru the shifter stop. new cable housing and end cap. My only concern would be that there may be something wrong with the shifter casing at the stop area for the hole to be big enough to let this happen in the first place. I am not a fan of plastic ferrules/endcaps. replace the housing and use metal caps. reset your limit screws properly. replace the cable also and the housing loop to the derailleur

Ok, so upon further inspection it seems that the end cap is still where it should be, but only 1 or 2 wires are actually inside it! The rest as per the pictures have fallen out, which automatically means i'll have to buy a new cable. Do you reckon the stuffed cable could be the source of the problem(s).

[Painkiller]

No doubt in my mind, but as I noted, for that many strands to even go thru you may have a junk shifter housing, you will know this upon inspection. It should act as a cable housing stop. be sure to use a metal endcap. the hole for the cable should not be much larger than the cable itself. if this happens again after the recommended fix or starts to bind after a short while you will have to replace the shifter if it is built in and not an adjustible barrel stop, hard to tell from the pics but it looks like it does not have a barrel adjuster.

[cricket0140]

(10-18-2014, 01:05 PM)painkiller Wrote:  No doubt in my mind, but as I noted, for that many strands to even go thru you may have a junk shifter housing, you will know this upon inspection. It should act as a cable housing stop. be sure to use a metal endcap. the hole for the cable should not be much larger than the cable itself. if this happens again after the recommended fix or starts to bind after a short while you will have to replace the shifter if it is built in and not an adjustible barrel stop, hard to tell from the pics but it looks like it does not have a barrel adjuster.

So I've replaced the cable and housing. And went for a test ride. Everything works great!
Thanks for the help, much appreciated.

[Painkiller]

good deal!