Bicycle Mechanics - How I removed a stuck bottom bracket...

The drive side piece of this BB was so stuck in the frame that it broke my pin spanner when I tried to remove it. The BB is garbage once it's out of the frame anyway so to remove it I welded a piece of scrap steel to the cup and used the biggest pliers I own to twist it free. You can see how much torque it took based on the twist in the welded piece. Once I got it started it screwed right out; I'll check the threads and grease liberally before installing the new BB.

Please excuse my booger welds, they held to twist the piece out and that's all that matters.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h170/HandsomeRyan/IMG_0764.jpg

Slightly surprised your welds held up, but that would have been easy to fix.
Lacking a welder, I would have drilled out the holes for the pins a bit bigger
and tried a BFH and punch or maybe a bit of metal with corresponding holes
and tried self tapping screws into the holes through the metal and wrenched
on that.

Glad it worked out. Here's what I would recommend next time. Scroll down to the section "fixed cup tools." Sheldon's homeade bb cup removal tool works on even the most stubborn cups, along with soaking with penetrating oil and maybe a little impact and a lot of leverage.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/bbcups.html

Was this the fixed (drive side) cup or the adjustable (non-drive side) cup? It certainly looke like an adjustable (nds) cup, given the pin holes, lack of wrench flats and lack of an outer flange to limit it's thread depth.

I think the apparent lack of flange is just a product of the photo. I've seen fixed cups designed for pin spanner installation and removal.

Use Anti-sieze when you assemble !!! Smoother torqueing, and it will make disassembly possible later.

I think the apparent lack of flange is just a product of the photo. I've seen fixed cups designed for pin spanner installation and removal.

Some of the nicer cup and cone bottom brackets used two adjustable cups so you could fine tune your chainline. Well I take that back, since one of them was left threaded, they had adjustable fixed cups, how does that sound?

Assuming that it would clear your chain stay, or could be bent to do so, you could have welded it in parallel to the chain stay and then used the piece of steel as a lever. I'm also surprised those welds held. Either way, congrats on getting it out, and remember to at least grease the new one.

Torch applied to the bb area will get 99.999999999999999999% of the bb's out there. Of course the caveat is you don't give a flying **** about the paint. Best case would be minor discoulouration of the bb area.

Use Anti-sieze when you assemble !!! Smoother torqueing, and it will make disassembly possible later.

+1

Anti-seize, or even plumber's teflon tape, is your friend, esp when you know the BB will have to be replaced sooner or later.

Torch applied to the bb area will get 99.999999999999999999% of the bb's out there. Of course the caveat is you don't give a flying **** about the paint. Best case would be minor discoulouration of the bb area.

Just don't set the rubber mat on fire like I did.

One of my proudest moments. Same kind of bottom bracket that was absolutely not coming out. So I took a hacksaw and cut the cup in half. Then made another cut to make it look like a piece of pie (3 total cuts). Tapped the "piece of pie" out and then tapped out the rest. I then considered myself a genius for a couple days.

Slightly surprised your welds held up

They don't look pretty but they held tight!.


Glad it worked out. Here's what I would recommend next time. Scroll down to the section "fixed cup tools." Sheldon's homeade bb cup removal tool works on even the most stubborn cups, along with soaking with penetrating oil and maybe a little impact and a lot of leverage.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/bbcups.html

I should have known that Sheldon would have a solution...


Was this the fixed (drive side) cup or the adjustable (non-drive side) cup? It certainly looke like an adjustable (nds) cup, given the pin holes, lack of wrench flats and lack of an outer flange to limit it's thread depth.

This was the drive side cup. The only tool [besides a welder apparently] to install or remove either side of this BB was a pin spanner. The bike is a late 60's bridgestone if that makes a difference.



I think the apparent lack of flange is just a product of the photo. I've seen fixed cups designed for pin spanner installation and removal.

Winner. pin spanner only, no flats for a wrench or other tool.


Use Anti-sieze when you assemble !!! Smoother torqueing, and it will make disassembly possible later.

preach it brother!


Assuming that it would clear your chain stay, or could be bent to do so, you could have welded it in parallel to the chain stay and then used the piece of steel as a lever. I'm also surprised those welds held. Either way, congrats on getting it out, and remember to at least grease the new one.

By grinding the piece of steel to fit into the spindle hole I was able to weld in the center and decrease the likelihood of accidentally welding the cup to the BB shell. The "tab" I welded on didn't need to be that long, I was just too lazy to trim it down.


One of my proudest moments. Same kind of bottom bracket that was absolutely not coming out. So I took a hacksaw and cut the cup in half. Then made another cut to make it look like a piece of pie (3 total cuts). Tapped the "piece of pie" out and then tapped out the rest. I then considered myself a genius for a couple days.

Nice.

Please excuse my booger welds, they held to twist the piece out and that's all that matters...

I've never heard that expression applied to a weld bead... I love it! :D

Your booger welds rock!!! :thumb:

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Well its not really a bead... more like a booger!