Crisis: Bottom Bracket

NoHCC said:

Hi,

I've got an old SLX frame (cinelli, italian thread bb) with a late
model Dura-ace sealed bottom bracket installed. Seems that the bottom
bracked has seized over the winter months and now I cannot remove the
drive side cup.

Wait. It gets better. The drive side cup is sheered in half after a
falied attemt to remove it.

The non drive side cup removes easily. Any suggestions for the best way
to remove the bb while not destroying the shell?

Yes - carefully make three axial cuts with a hacksaw, being careful not
to go into the shell, and then fold it up on itself (the residual bits
of thread will fall out or can be picked out). That's what the bike
shops do when there is no other way to shift a BB (e.g. stripped splines).

Personally I'd let the LBS do it anyway.

Perhaps a stupid question since you note it is Italian but... are you
unscrewing in the correct direction? If I recall, the drive side cup unscrews
counter-clockwise on Italian.

NoHCC said:

Hi,

I've got an old SLX frame (cinelli, italian thread bb) with a late
model Dura-ace sealed bottom bracket installed. Seems that the bottom
bracked has seized over the winter months and now I cannot remove the
drive side cup.

Wait. It gets better. The drive side cup is sheered in half after a
falied attemt to remove it.

The non drive side cup removes easily. Any suggestions for the best way
to remove the bb while not destroying the shell?

Any and all help is appreciated.

Thank you.

Not a stupid question. Weird answer: Possibly that may have happened
but as I was not the one to do the work that stripped the cup, I could
not answer that honestly. Either way it is past the point of a
conventional solution.

Thanks. This is a good suggestion and may have to go this route if all
else fails..

NoHCC said:

Hi,

I've got an old SLX frame (cinelli, italian thread bb) with a late
model Dura-ace sealed bottom bracket installed. Seems that the bottom
bracked has seized over the winter months and now I cannot remove the
drive side cup.

For Italian standards, that is a right-hand thread. But it's too late to
worry about that, isn't it.

Quoted message said:

Wait. It gets better. The drive side cup is sheered in half after a
falied attemt to remove it.

The non drive side cup removes easily. Any suggestions for the best way
to remove the bb while not destroying the shell?

Dremel the rest of it out. Heck, you're half-way done.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | "What am I on? I'm on my bike, six hours a day, busting my ass.
_`\(,_ | What are you on?" --Lance Armstrong
(_)/ (_) |

Check the thread earlier this year about a similar experience I had with a
bike (that I also did not foul up) with a similar problem. In that case it
was a lower end BB and I ended up sawing the tube, but the dremel method
described would probably be a good way for you to go.

Just search the archive a bit--it was in late December or January.
Cheers,
Blake

NoHCC said:

I've got an old SLX frame (cinelli, italian thread bb) with a late
model Dura-ace sealed bottom bracket installed. Seems that the bottom
bracked has seized over the winter months and now I cannot remove the
drive side cup.
Wait. It gets better. The drive side cup is sheered in half after a
falied attemt to remove it.
The non drive side cup removes easily. Any suggestions for the best way
to remove the bb while not destroying the shell?

If the left cup moves, remove it. Remove the needle bearings
, spindle, etc and use one of the fricton-type cup tools
(Zeus, Kingsbridge, etc) on the stump.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971