Original Owner of 2012 FELT DA2 w/ 1st Gen Dura Ace Di2 - Bike worked fine when I hung it up last November . Yesterday NO RD. FD worked fine , all correct light indicators worked to check battery and shift RD. LBS troubleshoot RD wiring is fine , RD Failed. My understanding is Shimano = No longer supporting 1st Gen. Quick search for 1st gen dura ace 7970 rear derailleur confirms this.
What are my options?
Thinking Ultegra Di2 retrofit instead of trying to find the RD. Little more cost but its available will end up with 11spd and new system through out vs. repairing part of a failing system and worrying about the remainder. How much of the old system could stay?
Next bike will be E-Tap but don’t wanna waste that expense on this bike. But I need to get this bike up and running until I get that “next bike”… Pretty much useless as is…
I’d just get an old gen Di2 RD from eBay. Is that a possibility? You can’t mix and match current gen components, so it’s an all-or-nothing upgrade if you want Ultegra Di2.
If it was going when you hung it up, then it is probably the motor or rack frozen.
Find a techy near you and get them to give the motor a little boot with some extra volts to get it moving.
Once it’s going it will probably be fine after you get a little lube onto the rack an into the motor bearing.
The rack is easy to access, the motor bearings a bit of a pain in the arse.
None of the 1st Gen Di2 components will be directly compatible with any iteration of Ultegra Di2. Not only is the wiring different but the shifters, junction box, and derailleurs have electronic chips which the system needs to recognize as compatible them to work. Its possible that with some electronic wizardry you could splice and re-program a new RD and brifter into the old system (which would require swamping internal parts of your and new systems) allowing you to upgrade to 11 spd but this would be a pro level hack. It could also be a pretty cosmically poor process depending on how you are able to hide all changes.
With the prices I am seeing at the moment for used 7970 Di2 I would be tempted to scrap electronic all together for the shifting. You can keep the brakes wired as they are and just add 105 FD, RD and bar ends. This will save you $$$ and help the e-tap bike come sooner. You could also totally re-fit with Ultegra-Di2 but that seems to me a pretty steep investment based on the bike.