Bicycle Mechanics - Repacking BB - accordion sleeve question

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.



PDA
neufroutes
08-19-06, 02:15 PM
Hi,

So i am changing out the BB on my 1975 Peugeot, using the sugino french thread cups and a 3 series spindle a la Sheldon's advice. In his bb adjustment article (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tt-bbadj.html) he says to install the fixed cup and the accordion sleeve liner, then put your bearings in the adjustable cup and put in the spindle and put that aside while you put the bearings in the fixed cup. Then you lower the spindle/adjustable cup into the BB. All good. However - when i did this I discovered that this means that on the fixed cup side, the bearings are inside the liner, while on the adjustable side they are outside. Screwing in the adjustable cup (not all the way, maybe that's my problem) resulted in some of the bearings going inside the liner and some staying outside. This didn't seem particularly advantageous to me, but then again this is my first BB adjustment.

So, question - where are the bearings _supposed_ to end up, and how can I install everything with the liner so that they get there? Thanks!

moxfyre
08-19-06, 02:20 PM
There's unforutnately no real way to have the bearings end up TOTALLY inside the liner, since there's nothing for the dust sleeve ends to fit around other than the axle cones. The main point of the dust sleeve is to prevent water and mud from dripping down the seat tube, downtube, and chainstays and rusting the BB parts.

As long as the sleeve is wide enough to cover the openings that connect to the adjacent tubes, it will do its job as well as it can! There is often a small hole drilled in the bottom of the BB shell to allow water to run out.