Thanks to all.
My story has a less-than-dramatic ending, perhaps. Remembering my father's advice that the first step to working on mechanical problems was to just look at things for a while, I took a look at another set of levers on a different bike, then looked at the problem set, and saw that the flat nylon washer was where the convex-face washer should have been and vice versa. "Somebody" really screwed up! I'll have to give him a good talking to next time I find him in the garage.
In addition, I saw that the "good" set has a small and very thin flat washer directly under the thumb screw, which might add the 1-2mm needed to keep the screws from bottoming out. These were missing on the problem set but readily available in the metric box at the local hardware store.
Finally, I recalled that a set of Modolo shifters I sold recently had a small star washer under the thumb screw, so I bought some of these as well and will see what the results may be, regarding fixing the tightening position.
Really should have looked a little more closely, eh?
Bill Snyder Lake Balboa, California, USA
-----Original Message----- From: Old Town Cyclery [mailto:oldtown@kcnet.com] Sent: Monday, August 12, 2002 1:06 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Campy Downtube Levers Slipping
one trick a bicycle mechanic of 30+ years always used was putting a tiny
piece of steel wool along the threads to hold it tight. we still do that
today! seems to work. good luck
peace
sarah g
kcks