LeicaLad 

Okay. I posted the full question in C&V, so if any of the wrenchers willing to respond would please put it there. Thanks.

I post a photo, and ask the why & how about using what I'm told is called the “tecalamit value", which appears to be an oil spout/value to inject oil into a bottom bracket shell.

Do please look at that thread and, if you could, do please help me understand the how & why of this.

Thank you.

Owen

tylerwal

I realize english isn't your 1st language, but I honestly can't understand what you are getting at.

dabac

A bit impatient, are we?

Best I can tell "tecalamit" AKA "tecalumit" is a company name, and the thingy in your pic looks to be same difference from any other grease port/grease nipple. The company also made stuff for oil filters, being the probable cause for the oil reference. Heck, they're still around:https://www.tecalemit.co.uk/about.html
And oil is rarely used on the type of bearings there are on bicycles, because of its poor staying power. It's not that it doesn't work, but you need to keep it topped up "all" the time.
I can't tell if what's on your pic is the small spring-loaded ball that acts as an one-way valve on regular grease nipples, or if it's a patterned cap over what's basically a tidied-up hole through the BB shell.
Big grease guns customarily comes with matching filler heads that latch on to the grease ports so that you can pump grease into there while smaller grease guns rely on the same pushing action both providing sealing force between gun head/nipple as well as being the motive power behind injecting the grease.
I've never seen an arrangement where oil has to be forcibly pumped into a bearing. Then again, the difference between a really heavy oil and a light grease can be quite marginal.

LeicaLad 

Ah, guess I understand the "impatience" bit now.

I'm on the road and will be off-line shortly for a 12+ hour drive, so I guess I am. Anyway, responses over in C&V. Photo of bike now added for entertainment value.

It just seems unlikely - to me, anyway - that one would ever want to fill a BB shell with grease/oil. Which is why this seems so curious to me.

There are several different spellings that may or may not be the same thing.

Not sure if the company that carries the name has anything to do with it, or how the name got attached to the value or not.

It was just the name given by the person who sold me the frame.

Thanks.



Thank you.

Bikewer

As they noted in the C & V thread... Essentially another form of what's generally called a "Zerk" fitting.

As to the wisdom of dumping a bunch of oil into your BB.... Drip, drip. Long ago, with dirt or cinder roads, this would not have been a problem. In fact, many early internal-combustion engines were of the "total loss" design. Oil went from a tank, through the engine, and onto the ground....

Still, for the rider who didn't want to invest in the tools (crank pullers, pin wrenches, bottom-bracket lockring spanner...) and time and effort to occasionally re-build the bottom bracket, shooting it full of lube now and then might have been comforting.

dabac

It's a Netiquette thing. People are usually quite forthcoming with answers , if they have any, so posting the same question in another forum w/o giving the first enough exposure time to attract an answer is seen as - well, impatient.

It's not that one wants to fill the shell, that part is just accidental. The engineering problem is "how do I get new, clean(ish) grease into the bearings w/o having to disassemble the thing?" The engineering answer is "fill up with new grease from a direction that will push most of the old grease out through the marginally effective seals that are a huge part of there being a need for regreasing to begin with"

Well, if you google the word you'll find plenty of links to vintage grease guns and similar things, and from their website "Established in 1927 Tecalemit Garage Equipment Co Ltd is one of the Automotive Industry's most recognised brands both in the UK and throughout the world. The fit is far too good to be a coincidence. And it's not like consistent spelling has ever been a major feature of internet discussions, nor of anything that has gotten passed on a lot by word-of-mouth.

JohnDThompson 

Many older bikes, particularly British bikes, were oil-lubricated. The BB oiler cap is not to fill the shell with oil, but simply to add lubrication to the oiled bearings. Some shells used felt wicks to carry the oil to the bearings; others simply allowed it to splash around on the spindle in hope that some would find its way to the bearings.

LeicaLad 

Thank you. This was helpful.