Help needed with internal cable routing

[birkettN]

Hey guys,

 

Ive been trying for the past hour to thread a new dropper seat post cable into the seat post hole.

 

I have a Pyga 140 Pascoe

 

The cable seems to be hitting something, Ive tried all angles, no luck.

 

Any suggestions ?

[MudLark]

Lots of things you can try - such as sucking a cotton thread through with a vacuum cleaner and then using that to pull through something stronger which you can then use pull the cable through (I got the cotton thread through and the stronger cord but still couldn't get the cable through). I tried everything I could think of but in the end I gave up and made it a job for my LBS. I think in the end they may have had to pull the bottom bracket out to get the cable through.

[Bonus]

How far in does the cable actually go?

[Meezo]

Try with the gear cable first (inner) then tape the housing to it and pull it back out...

 

This has always worked for me.

 

I've heard of cotton wool and a vacuum cleaner

 

I've seen and was tempted to buy the internal routing kit, but you could use the magnets of those old bike computers and the inner cable

[birkettN]

How far in does the cable actually go?

 

About 10CM

[birkettN]

Try with the gear cable first (inner) then tape the housing to it and pull it back out...

 

This has always worked for me.

 

I've heard of cotton wool and a vacuum cleaner

 

I've seen and was tempted to buy the internal routing kit, but you could use the magnets of those old bike computers and the inner cable

 

Ok let me give this a go

[Jehosefat]

I've seen and was tempted to buy the internal routing kit, but you could use the magnets of those old bike computers and the inner cable

 

I've got the Park Tool internal routing kit and so far it has been a bit of a waste of money. It has not, in my experience, made routing cables any easier and a few times I have started trying to use it and ended up just feeding the cables through without it. Would not recommend.

 

The tricky bit with routing internal dropper cables is usually getting the outer to bend from the seat tube into the down tube (or vice versa). I'm not sure why your cable is stopping after only going in 10cm, maybe it's hitting the suspension pivots. (Also if it's only 10cm you could try shining a light down the tube to see what is blocking it)

[birkettN]

I'm giving up, lol

[RobertWhitehead]

Why not route a piece of wire / inner cable from the opposite side (where the cable needs to come out of) and then fasten it to the dropper cable with just enough insulation tape to hold it in place before pulling it back down effectively guiding the dropper cable with the other cable 

[shaper]

Try with the gear cable first (inner) then tape the housing to it and pull it back out...

 

 

This is what I always do

[MudLark]

Depends upon the bike. I tried all of the above on my Top Fuel. No joy.... 

[kvdp]

Tried many options in the past,and yes,the bend around bb is the most difficult, also even more if seat tube has a bend.

A small nut,properly tied to a piece of wool,always does the trick for me.You can drop the nut down into frame,and then you can lift,twist,shake frame until nut is visible on exit point.Normally a piece of wire bent with a hook,helps in grabbing nut on exit.

When wool is out on exit side,wrap cable outer securely onto wool,and slowly pull on exit side.When resistance is felt, pull back on cable a few mm,and foward again on exit side.

[Chingy182]

I've seen a bike mechanic pull a cable through in 10 sec where I gave up after hours and hours of toiling away.

 

He just used a magnet and an old broken spoke to pull it in.

[CJ Van]

If I remember correctly the Pascoe 140 has external routing with a hole in the seat tube close to the bottom of the of the main triangle.  The BB should not interfere with the cable routing here. 

The problem might be that the angle of the hole is not really at an angle because it is so low down on the seat tube, so the outer cable might not go straight up the seat tube and get stuck on something inside because of the almost 90-degree hole.  Not sure if this makes any sense…….  

Looking at the frame I thing your best bet will be to get a piece of cotton wool of string through the hole with a vacuum cleaner and then tie/tape that to the outer cable and push it through the frame from the bottom up and use the string to guide the cable up so that it does not catch on anything.  Trying to get the cable from the top down through that little hole with the 90-degree angle will not work that lekker. 

I have used the string and vacuum cleaner method in the past with a lot of success.

[Dubber]

Used this a number of times.  

 

Built up four Chinese Carbon frames.  I suspect that their internal routing may be less polished than a big name brand (just an assumption).    The Park Tool kit was a life saver.

 

If you are just routing something once, probably not worth the money - but if you build bikes fairly often, it is worth every penny...

[Chavo]

This may seem like a silly question, but have you shone a light down the seat tube to see if it helps identifying what the cable housing is getting stuck on?

 

I've routed a dropper cable housing through the OneTen29 frame with relative ease but I did find it required the cable housing to be completely free i.e. attaching it to the handle bar and frame mounts was done after having routed the cable housing through the seat tube. My assumption was the additional "freedom" helped with wiggling it through the frame catch points since the angle the hole in the frame places the cable at is not conducive to an easy routing experience.