rapid fire shifter repair (Shifting smooth as butter now)

[dragnusa]

I'm going to be tuning up my sons Trek 880 for him to take with him to collage. The last time he rode it was close to 2 years ago, When we got it the rapid fire shifter was gummed up with old grease and after spraying it with PB blaster many times we got it shifting ok. It sat for a while, while he recouped from a knee injury and is acting all gummed up again and not wanting to shift. Can these rapid fire shifters be rebuilt or even just broke down and cleaned?

 

[RustySprockets]

I've opened the covers on them to get better access to the internal parts--the grease is usually caked and gummy. I've heard brake cleaner will do a good job, but beware of plastic parts that could be affected by solvent. The real problem area is two small spring-activated pawls that need to move freely. If you can lube those and work them back and forth with some sort of probe, shifting will be restored. I like to lube them with Tri-Flow because it doesn't seem to gum up like many of the alternatives.

They are like clockwork on the inside, so I don't recommend further disassembly...just clean them as best you can, light lube, and work those pesky pawls.

 

[dragnusa]

I need to get more triflow, they need to sale that stuff by the gallon

 

[dragnusa]

This is the Shimano 220gs shifter, We got into it today and got it up on the stand, we started by switching between WD40 and PBlaster and it just wasn't doing anything so I took the cover off and grabbed a can of store brand heavy duty stove and grill cleaner.
Here is before the stove and grill cleaner.

Here is after about 5 mins of the stove and grill cleaner.