The mechanism inside the rail has been squeaking near the front of each stroke, so I was going to take it out anyway to see if lubrication of some sliding part (the traveling pulley housing is the likely culprit) might help. Might as well replace the cord and chain while I'm at it.
I just took the skewer out and found something odd: Looking at the Model B service instructions, I find that the routing of the shock cord over the rear pulley on my skewer is backwards... it comes in from the front pulley over the top of the pulley and exits the bottom, when the instructions clearly show the reverse. Also, the traveling pulley housing is inverted from the image in the manual.
The circlips that hold the pulleys onto their axles are still there. Given that the instructions say to discard these when servicing, it's possible they've never been removed.
So: Either servicing was done incorrectly at some point in the past (suggested by the incorrect routing), or it came this way from the factory (suggested by the presence of the clips). I'm inclined to believe the former for obvious reasons.
Two questions:
- Did the factory change the routing of the shock cord and orientation of the traveling pulley at some point?
- Could the upside-down traveling pulley housing be the source of the squeak? Seems likely to me (the housing shows some scuffing), but wondering if anyone has better knowledge. FWIW the chain slide at the front appears to be in good shape, as does the chain itself.
If it helps date things... the chain is black (the replacements are bronze) and the shock cord casing is also black.
Thanks!
