One day, not too long ago, I was out for a mountain bike trip and bent my rear derailleur after a mystery rock hit in a puddle early the first day.
The grinding sound was gnarly and it had to be fixed.
In the process of taking the cage apart (so I could hammer it straight enough for the next day of riding), I unscrewed it from the clutch assembly. Much to my surprise, the whole arm exploded out, propelled by a tightly wound spring.
After bending it as straight as I could, I screwed the arm and spring back together. But, the derailleur cage had no “snap” and just casually drooped down from the bike frame.
After closer examination, I observed (as I’m sure many others who stumbled on this post did) that the outside of the clutch had a dust cap with a torx dust cover labelled “Type 3 Roller Bearing Clutch.”
Aha! This must be it! But…
Removing the cap revealed a hex nut which I was certain had to be either counterspun, clocked, countersunk against the opposing screw on the cage side, or all of the above.
After a couple hours wrangling this assembly against a backdrop of fleeting daylight, a warm campfire, and my friends’ hangout peppered with my random expletive, I had to cede defeat.
For the time being.
Returning to civilization, I searched the internet for both SRAM Eagle Derailleur inner cage plates (could not find any) and info about resetting the spring. I found my solution buried 2 pages deep in a Pinkbike post.
The process is extremely simple. And has nothing to do with the hex nut on the outside of the cage or the “Type 3 Roller Bearing Clutch.” The lack of info is what motivated me to produce this post about how to replace a SRAM Eagle derailleur cage.
Big shout out to dellavechhia on Pinkbike for posting the how-to. Another shout out to Inside Line in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for scrounging up an old derailleur cage for me to swap out.