How stupid am I ?

[mill4six]

Riding home in the dark last week, a nasty crunch from the right STI lever left me in top gear with only the 2 front rings to get me home. I wasn't in the mood to mess about so after some wailing and gnashing of teeth, I bit the bullet and ordered a pair of Sora levers from Ribble. On fitting them today I discovered that it was only a broken gear cable To cut a long story short, I fitted a new cable and spent an age trying to index my gears which to be honest have been bad for a while. When they shift up they won't shift down and vice versa. I'd hoped the new cables would sort it but apparently not. I've cleaned the cassette which was caked in a thick oily deposit, adjusted the B screw and lubed the trapezium pivots and it's a bit better now but not perfect. Sometimes the lever clicks and the mech barely moves so could be a problem there. Everything is adjusted as well as I know how but it's all part worn and I fear replacing one item may not solve my issues, so it could rapidly get expensive. I may need a new mech, chain and cassette and even then that lever might be dodgy. There are 3 9 speed bikes in the family so it might be wise not to return the new levers but to hang on to them, they're not so easy to find now everyone is on 10 speed and they were half price so I might regret returning them, especially as it's practically a given that I'll crash tomorrow if I do I welcome all suggestions if there's anything else to try. Weirdly it's on the small sprockets it's reluctant to change up and on the big ones it hesitates to shift down (mostly). Anyway, there goes a morning's tinkering......

[pwa]

You seem to be trying all the right solutions but haven't been lucky so far. Probably a friction problem somewhere (you have already worked that out). It's a pain to investigate, but I have had similar trouble when I didn't correctly bed a cable outer into the lever, causing friction for the cable at that point. Also, it may be worth lubing the lever internals if you haven't done that recently.

[Elizabethsdad]

Come over to dark side of IHGs

[mill4six]

Hmm, Maybe I'll try a new guide pulley first

[andrewjoseph]

undo the gear cables from the mech/s, pull the cable by hand as you shift the levers up and down to feel where it is sticking. remove cable outers until you find where the problem is. Clean or replace outers if needed.

[trull]

Are the cable outer casings in good shape? Did you change them as well? That might be some wire fragments hidden inside which are affecting the shifts.

[reohn2]

Nylon guide under the BB perhaps?
Worn ones can get grooved and show up some odd shifting symptoms.

[gregoryoftours]

Here are a few more things to try - take the back wheel out, pull gear cable out of stops so there is no cable tension, push the rear der cage in an out with your hand to check that resistance is not in the mech itself, check entire cable run for obstructions, resistance in the cable outers and that all ends are seated properly in the stops, check cable is clamped correctly at the rear mech, check to see mech cage/hanger is not bent. It's a good idea after re-seating cables to pull the gear inner firmly away from the frame to put tension on it. This helps the outer seat fully into all the the stops/cable caps etc. This should be done with the rear mech on the largest sprocket so that you are pulling against the low limit screw on the mech and not bending the chain.

[DesWeller]

If your cable broke in the shifter then chances are it was fraying quite a bit before it failed. You may have a shifter full of little bits of wire. Time for the tweezers!

[foxyrider]

All of the above!

and of course Sora is still 9 speed, you can even pick up the higher spec Tiagra 9 speed still so don't worry too much about replacements!

Now my 6, 7, 9,10, 11 speed bikes - there's a headache!

[mill4six]

Back on the road today. I found it was critical to get the upper and lower limit screws perfect first and then adjust the tensioner to get the indexing working. A newer guide pulley didn't help. It's all working as well as before but it's on a knife edge between good upshifts and good downshifts. I think some of the suggestions here might help explain that. The outers were replaced but the radius is a bit tight at the rear mech to my eyes, although I copied the original. There's just enough inner if I wanted to try a longer piece