For anyone struggling with the spring: use an old piece of shift cable. Fold/ bend the cable and use that to hook the end of the spring and pull it through. This worked first try for me!! I struggled for a long time with other methods with no success.
I'm watching just to see the part where you put the black plastic piece back over the shifting pawl. I've just cleaned mine, but the black cover is causing the turning gear mechanism that turns and clicks when you shift to rub against the cover and not shift that last gear. Nice job though! That is brand new!
I am looking everywhere for rubber hoods to replace the old ones that have messed up. After some research I found the part numbers but nothing on the market, the product has long been discontinued. Buying a pair of shifters on ebay just to replace hoods does not seem appropriate to me, besides, judging by the photo, the quality of the hoods on them is questionable. Any idea what newer hoods I can safely replace my old ones with? Shimano ST-5600 or 6600 visually seems the same to me, but I'm not sure. And the modern 7-speed shifters does not look the same to me. Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!
Visually the same and more modern, maybe the Tourney A070 hoods? They have the same small lever on the side, and it looks like you can still purchase them.
