How to Replace a Campagnolo Ultrashift Body

So I'm stupid, and the other day I was replacing the cables on my Campy Athena Ergoshift brake/shift levers, and I didn't have a new Campy shift cable, so I thought, "Why not use a Jagwire cable?"

I knew better, but I did it anyway. The problem is that a Jagwire cable made for Shimano/SRAM has a bigger head that gets jammed in the Campy shifting mechanism and ruins everything. Or, really, trying to get the damn thing out ruins everything.

So I had to buy a new shifter body. That's the nice thing about Campy though, you can buy replacement parts that are fairly inexpensive instead of a whole new mechanism. The body I got cost $50.

This, then is how I fixed my little problem.

First you have to peel back the rubber hoods and use a T25 Torx key to unfasten the shifter. Obviously you need to disengage the brake and shift cable. 

See? T25 bolt. 

Then you have to take off the hood. Well, actually, if you're smarter than me you'll take off the brake lever before you remove the hood. It's a pain in the ass either way, I suggest you use rubbing alcohol to get it off more smoothly. I also found it easier to get the hood off with the shifter off the bike, but most guides tell you to do it while the shifter is still connected to the handlebars.

This is the new Ultra shift body and a genuine Campagnolo cable. Actually, I think it is Jagwire too, but it has a Campy head. 

So the brake lever that I'm trying to swap over to the new Ultrashift body is held in place by a rivet that you have to smack out with a hammer. Most guides make this look easy; it isn't. I first used a flat-tipped screw like in this picture as a punch to bash out the rivet, but it kept bending. Eventually I used a 4mm bolt. And, believe me, I really had to smack that son of a gun. I mean full-strength bashing. The rivet is in there good. 

Another shot of my rivet-bashing set up. Pretty sloppy, I know, but it worked. I didn't care about marring the old Ultra Shift body in the vise's jaws because it was ruined anyway.  

This is the rivet, about to come out. As you can see, I hit on the inside of the shifter body, and the rivet comes out on the outside. 

Again, if I were smart I would have put the rubber hoods on the shifter before putting the brake lever on. But I'm not smart, so to get it on I actually slipped it over the back of the shifter instead of the front. Again, rubbing alcohol makes this easier. Though, honestly, I didn't use any. I'm pretty much the worst mechanic ever. 

Putting the rivet and lever into the new shifter body is easy. Just took some light tapping. But, as you can see, the new shifter body is aesthetically different than the old one. The upshift lever is black and the downshift lever has a different shape. This doesn't really bother me, but if I were more particular the only way to swap shift levers would be to re-build the whole mechanism. I plan on doing that in a few years, maybe, once things start shifting a little sloppy. 

And this is the final project. Looks just like it used to. 

Here's the video of how Campy thinks it should be done. Again, they make it look easy to get that brake lever rivet out.