Centaur Bottom Bracket

Phill P said:

Yes I'm riding a triple, and the LBS guy rides campy and says hes done this before with out a problem. The bottom bracket and cranks all feel fine, took it out for a 70km cruise right after picking it up.

All's well that ends well!

I had previously mounted a C-Record crank on a Shimano cartridge BB (yeah, sacrilege for the Campy Only people) for a similar reason -- it was what I had handy at the time!

My point is this - If you NEED to spray something like WD40 into your BB, it's time for a new BB. WD40 isn't a bearing lubricant. At best, it's just a short term solution. I would bet there's hardly ANY grease left in that BB to flush out...why is it creaking in the first place?

alfeng said:

I "love" that remark ... it's a great parrot of what I've also read in BICYCLING magazine espousd by somone who probably didn't take high school chemistry/physics/whatever, yet aforementioned published mechanic is taken as Moses coming down from Mt Sinai!

Just trust me ... with SEALED cartridge bearing bottom brackets, the amount of WD-40 or Household Oil infiltration will be minimal ... but, it will probably be enough to move the grease around the ball bearings enough to smooth things out. There's no way on God's-green-Earth that enough WD-40 will enter the cartridge bearing to truly flush the grease out!

If anyone can get enough WD-40 (or, equivalent) into a sealed cartridge bottom bracket, then he-or-she can clean & regrease the cartridge bearings.

I'd elaborate, but it isn't my intent to "convert" anyone ... I was just relating a solution which I know has worked in the past for me when confronted with a cartridge bottom bracket which is no longer smooth.

IMO, the people who should worry about misusing solvents & lubes are the ones who use chain cleaners which scrub & flush the (cosmolene-type grease in the case of Shimano) "grease" that lubes their chain's pins ...

BTW. A properly maintained, vintage, "loose" Dura Ace (and, Shimano 600, too ... heck, include the Sugino & SunTour BBs, too, amongst others) bottom bracket will be as smooth as a vintage Campagnolo bottom bracket.

SlowestCat3 said:

My point is this - If you NEED to spray something like WD40 into your BB, it's time for a new BB. WD40 isn't a bearing lubricant. At best, it's just a short term solution. I would bet there's hardly ANY grease left in that BB to flush out...why is it creaking in the first place?

Well, you may be right, but the odds are that grease remains in a cartridge bearing ... UNLESS a degreaser was used at some point in time to clean the bike.

So, just as you can theoretically use a butter knife as a screwdriver (in some instances!?!), you can use WD40 as a solvent ... but, it is only solvent in this application because it has a lower viscosity than the grease.

BTW. For those who don't know, grease does "age" with time ... and, that "aging" manifests itself as hardening.

Surely if the original grease is still on the cups of the bottom bracket when i took them out then surely the grease must be still in the sealed bb itself ?