Should it be this hard to adjust a front derailleur?

[lottafreaks]

Vintage bike lovers, I'm at a loss. I took apart a front derailleur and putting it back together has me stumped. A friend helped me connect the chain guide to the main body, forcing it under tension of the spring. It took both of us to manipulate it plus sheer muscle. Glenn's says the spring indexes into the body and can be flipped either way, but mine isn't like that. The spring has one clear orientation, threads only into the link and not also into the body, and using its tension to get the link to where it needs to be seems impossible without insane effort. We did get it together pretty haphazardly, but I'm back at square one after I brought it out to make final adjustments.

It's a Schwinn approved GT-250 off an old Varsity. pics follow. All the innards, how they look in the body, and the link next to it facing the direction it needs to be in.

http://imgur.com/FPmumvH
http://imgur.com/LqJaIzX
http://imgur.com/HeOYJdJ
http://imgur.com/DtbiXAN

I have another FD I can use, but I don't want to be beaten by this unassuming little guy!!
Appreciate the helpful people at this place!

 

[deorman]

I think most old "Schwinn-speed" derailleurs are Huret designs, I don't know if that will help you or not. Most of them do indeed have very strong springs, along with long levers to make them work. It may help if you can put up pics that show the whole thing instead of just detail close-ups. Good luck!

 

[rickpaulos]

"Glenn's says the spring indexes into the body and can be flipped either way, but mine isn't like that."

No surprise there. With over 5,000 different models of front derailleurs in the past 60 years, who could possibly write a "complete" manual.

Rick