michael word

About 2 Weeks ago I took the cranks off and cleaned all of the dirt off of the BB with soapy water and a bottle brush while still on the frame. Now I am getting a sound from the BB that sounds like loose ball bearing rolling around (almost like a small ticking sound). Is there anything wrong with it?

tomacropod

you may have inadvertently washed some grit into the BB. It may be in the bearing, or just grinding around on the spindle. Is it a (new) cartridge bottom bracket or (old) cup and cone type?

- Joel

brundle_fly

Does the crank spin smoothly when the chain is off?That's how I usually tell.
If it's grinding and coming to a halt quick then it's most likely worn.
What BB is it and how old?
Also,I keep soapy water away from bearings as it can rust them up.
I'd just take the BB out of the frame clean it with a dry rag and grease it up

fmw

This is almost always due to not tightening the BB hard enough. It needs to be really, really tight.

dafydd

retighten crank bolts.

well biked

You may have washed out some of the grease on the bb threads. I'd remove the cranks and bb, slather a new application of grease onto the bb threads in the frame, then re-install everything. Ticking and creaking sounds often come from the bb/bb shell interface; grease on the threads and plenty of torque usually solves it-

michael word

The BB is a '99 sealed shimano with only about 100 miles on it, there is no resistance or locking when turning.

Rowan

Likely that you either need to tighten the bolts on the cranks a little more, or remove them, coat lightly the square tapers on the BB spindle with Loctite 242/243 and put them back on. Some people use grease, but personally I don't, preferring the Loctite method.

moxfyre

I find that the best way to (re)install a bottom bracket is this: clean the threads of the BB and frame completely with rag and degreaser. Then put a layer of grease on the threads inside the frame. Now, screw the BB into the frame holding the tool *by hand*, not with a wrench. If it goes in easily by hand, then you know you've cleaned and greased it properly. Once you get the BB in all the way, grab it with a wrench and tighten that sucker down real hard (something like 360 ft-lbs of torque).

This method ensures that you get the BB tight enough, which eliminates about 90% of all creaking/ticking problems in my experience.

well biked

My understanding of the original post was that he didn't remove the bb from the frame, just the cranks from the bb. That's why I was thinking in my above post that he may have inadvertantly removed enough grease from the bb threads with the degreaser and bottle brush to cause the ticking. I agree with the above posts that the crankarms should be checked out first, since he said he took them off before the cleaning, but if that doesn't do it, remove the cranks/bb and re-install after a fresh application of grease to the bb shell, making sure everything is plenty tight-

Rowan

I don't think he stated he removed the BB, either. All things being equal, the cranks appear the logical place to start.

michael word

I checked the bolts and they where a little loose so I tightened them and the noise went down a little but is still there. Should I remove the cranks and grease the taper?

operator

Definitley not. You should grease the bolt threads, but not the taper.

moxfyre

If the bolts were "a little loose", you may have damaged the cranks unfortunately. The cranks are aluminum, while the BB spindle is steel, so if the cranks are a little bit loose, the motion of the BB scraping against the cranks can damage the crank tapers. It's sort of like how you can strip a bolt head by using a wrench that is slightly too loose for it.

Make sure that the crank bolts are VERY VERY VERY tight. At least 360 ft-lbs of torque (that's 60 lbs of force on a 12" wrench, or 30 lbs on a 6" wrench). If sufficient tightening doesn't fix the problem, you may have to live with the noise unfortunately.

michael word

By "a little loose" I mean that the bolts turned 1/16 of a turn or less while I estimate that I used around 30 pounds on a 8 inch wrench. I have just regreased my seat tube and seat tube mounts and the noise is still there so that is not the problem. I did not grease the threads when I installed the cranks, should I take them out and grease them?

michael word

I have just removed the cranks and the BB is the source of the problem. When I turn the spindle by hand with no cranks on the noise is still there and there is some binding. Is this BB dead?

well biked

Yeah, if there's a spot during the rotation that you're feeling extra resistance, and you're hearing a noise as well, I'd say just forget it and get a new bottom bracket. The good news is that you've already got everything apart and cartridge bb's can be had for pretty cheap. Don't forget to clean out the threads of the bb shell and re-grease before you install the new bb, and tighten everthing up (bb and cranks) nice and tight-

Rowan

I am sure you really meant 360in-lbs of torque, and the recommendation is 390in-lbs (32.5ft-lbs or 65lbs at 6" or 50lbs at 8"), which is probably all irrelevant because most people don't possess spring weight-scales let alone a torque wrench.

moxfyre

You're absolutely right, I meant in-lbs.

Tighter is pretty much always better in this case. I don't think there's an amount of torque I could apply with an 8 mm allen wrench that would do any damage.

I don't use a torque wrench, but have never had a problem with under-torqued parts. I do a lot of torquing things at work in the lab, so I'm a pretty good torque estimator I think