Uploaded March 2018 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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I ran into a problem where the front derailleur would shift up to the big chainrings fine, but then wouldn't shift back down to the lower gears. The shifter worked fine. The cable moved fine. I found the derailleur spring was loose. At first I thought maybe the spring had slipped, and could maybe be fixed. But when I looked closer at the derailleur, I saw the spring retention tab was broken off. Further research revealed this was a common problem with some Shimano Sora and Tiagra front derailleurs. So the derailleur is toast and will need to be replaced. The model # of this derailleur is FD-3304.

Yes, I am sure there are ways to jimmy rig the derailleur to work. I saw where one guy drilled a hole and epoxied a nail to be a spring retainer. But when I can buy a brand new derailleur for $14, why bother?

I replaced it with a Shimano 105 FD-5500 front derailleur.

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