1465 Km — F%#!&$g bottom f%#!&$g bracket!
by Steve ~ July 28th, 2007. Filed under: Maintenance & Repairs.I realize I am sounding a lot less like the calm, composed, hobbyist test-rider that I was only a few short days ago. The reason for that is that I made another attempt to remove the bottom bracket fixed cup this evening. After an hour of heaving, torquing, yelling and sweating, it had not budged a millimeter. My tools this time around were of the home-made variety, suggested by Sheldon Brown, who said he’d had great success with the method. (”The method” involves fixing a bolt, lock washers and a nut to the fixed cup, tightening until it pinches the fixed cup so firmly that the cup itself begins to turn as you apply force. Nope. Not this fixed cup. This fixed cup goes down in history next to the Schwinn that even Sheldon Brown failed on. It is, quite simply, immovable and immutable. It is the Everest of fixed cups.
Sigh. Again, with beer in hand, I write. That at least is some consolation.
The Dude at Maple Leaf Test Rides somehow got his off. I know he’s a bike mechanic, so he’s probably got the right tool for the job. There is a tool, I’m assured, that will do this. There are stories of home mechanics breaking their heads against the challenge of the fixed cup, only to give up and take their bike to a shop, to emerge moments later with the cup removed. So, it can be done. There is hope.
In the meantime, I repacked the bottom bracket with 11 loose bearings in each cup, sans retainers, and am leaving it at that for now. The thing actually works better than it ever has. A full 22 bearings makes a big difference, apparently.
Other than that, the SC1800 is holding up well in the face of a daily commuting. New brakes wearing in nicely, stopping well. Wheels round, still rolling. Saddle firm, still supporting. Odometer humming, tallying clicks.
Colour me the happiest man on earth. Now that the beer is taking effect.
Related posts:
Bottom Bracket — brute force attack
1,600 Km (1,000 Miles) - SuperCycle SC1800 repair record
July 29th, 2007 at 12:57 am
I recently did this upgrade to my own SC1800, also after reading about the conversion on maple leaf test rides. After overhauling it about 4 times, once every two weeks or so, I purchased a shimano UN54 of an appropraite size and used that.
The right cup was a bit of a pain, but I got it off with a large pair of pliers and a fair amount of swearing. It’s the reverse threaded one, which I had forgotten about the first couple of tries.
You could try, as a last resort, a propane torch to heat up the cup to aid in loosening it. It’ll kill the paint on the cup, but it’ll be going in the trash anyway.
Best of luck!
July 29th, 2007 at 2:37 am
Hey, thanks, I’ll give that a try… pliers and swearing first, then the propane torch. I knew it was reverse threaded (standard English), so I’ve definitely been cranking in the right direction. I just don’t want to damage the cup so badly that it can’t be used in case I don’t manage to get it off. I haven’t given up yet.
July 29th, 2007 at 3:35 am
[...] 1465 Km — F%#!&$g bottom f%#!&$g bracket! [...]
July 29th, 2007 at 5:09 am
I discovered this site via CommuteByBike.com. I just spent 45 minutes reading every post. Great writing. Great experiment! You’re now linked at my site.
Jason @ RocBike.com
July 29th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
A useful precursor to the application of any tool designed to remove a fixed cup - regardless of threading - is the emphatic, repeated application of what is probably the most-commonly-available tool anywhere. I’m referring, of course, to a hammer…
If you have a penetrating lubricant - such as WD-40 or Release-All or Jig-a-loo - liberally apply that to the junction between the bottom bracket shell and the fixed cup, both inside the shell and outside.
Then: place the bicycle’s non-drive side hard and squared against an immovable object (padding with a block of wood, if necessary), and strike the face of the fixed cup several times, with prejudice, in an effort to ’shock’ the threads; and, apply the tool(s) you have to the fixed cup and attempt to remove it.
Too often I see people ‘bouncing’ tool handles, as though they expect the nut, bolt, or piece to begin moving in much the same way a ball begins moving when it’s kicked. Resist that temptation, as instant gratification is much less likely in this case; it’s far more effective to apply concerted force steadily, and for a period of as much as 10-15 seconds. Once the fixed cup moves even a few degrees, you are pretty much assured of being able to remove it - the problem reduces to a question of how much time and how much sweat will be required to remove it completely.
Some steps to take to ease removal: keep the accessible threads of the fixed cup wet with penetrating lubricant; when unscrewing the cup, periodically reverse the direction you’re turning the tool before continuing; and, avoid attempting to remove the cup in one muscly sprint from start to finish - especially when doing so seems to make the shell or the cup unusually warm. The last two points are particularly relevant when your frame is aluminum.
If home-made tools (such as that suggested by Sheldon Brown) don’t work, a last-ditch may be found using a technique requiring a rod saw, a rotary tool (e.g. Dremel), and a piece of flat steel (preferably tool steel, of which there is no better example than the Park TL-5): with the rod saw, cut through the exterior, hardened surface of the cup at two points on the inside of the hole through which the spindle passes; with the rotary tool deepen and widen that pair of slots to the point where they can just accommodate the tool steel ‘handle’; clamp, in a vise, the ‘handle’, now wedged into the key-slot you’ve just created; and, using the bicycle frame itself as the wrench, turn the frame (appropriately for the thread) until the cup begins to turn. You can turn the frame through 180 degrees, then flip the ‘handle’ in the jaws of the vise, and do so repeatedly, but at some point it becomes practical to revert to more conventional methods of turning it…
August 13th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
[...] to all those who provided advice. See comments on previous posts. I applied spray lube (liquid wrench knock off) liberally, inside and outside the fixed cup. I [...]