Tools for bottom bracket work?
 

After my last experience :mad: getting my Grand Prix serviced at the LBS, I decided I needed to learn to do my own wrenching.

I am trying to figure out how to overhaul my bottom bracket, but I get kind of confused by all the variations: square tapered, splined, proprietary Raleigh threading, crank bolt sizes, etc. I need a little help with which specialty tools I need to buy. I am starting pretty much from scratch and want to get good tools, but I want to get the right tools the first go around.

It is a '79-'80ish model. Does anybody know if the crank bolts are 14mm, or are they something different?

Also, will the Park tool CCP-2 work to pull the cranks? Does my bike have some weird threading or not? (It is just a regular old square taper crank, right?)

Are there any other special tools I'll need?

Thanks.

You'll need a puller for the cranks, a wrench for the puller and the bolts, a tool for the lock ring, a pin tool for the adjustable cup and a wrench for the fixed cup (if you're going to remove; generally you don't unless painting the frame). And a pedal wrench.

I prefer the combination set of wrenches like the Campagnolo/Sugino type which include the above (except the puller and crank bolt wrench) The combination Park puller works well, and they have some hairspring shaped lock ring and pin tools that are helpful to have.

As far as the size of your Raleigh, don't know, but I'd start by getting the sizes you need for that. Loose Screws/Third Hand used to be a great source of tools online, though its been a long time since I ordered from them.

I'd guess by 79/80 Raleigh had settled on the standard English/Japanese format.

If you're just looking to overhaul your BB, you don't need to worry much about variations in BB types. You just need to remove the pedals (a thin 15mm wrench is need for that), remove the crank arm bolts (they could be 14mm or 15mm; a cheap metric socket kit will have what you need), remove the crank arms (the Park tool dbakl describes will work fine as will any other standard 22mm puller--important, be sure to remove the washers that are under the crank arm bolts! Sometimes they get a bit wedged in.), remove the lock ring on the non-drive side (lots of lockring tools that'll do the job), and remove the adjustable cup (a pin tool is usually what's needed--I like Park's). You don't need to remove the drive-side fixed cup if you're just doing an overhaul. So we're talking maybe $30 in tools? In my view, bike tools are always a good investment.

More details from Sheldon Brown: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/cotterless.html
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/bbcups.html

Neal

There's a good chance it's still the 26tpi threading. Easy way to tell is to measure the bb shell from inside to inside--if it's 71 or 76mm you have a proprietary model. Check Sheldon's site: http://sheldonbrown.com/raleigh26.html
Also see his bb overhaul tools site: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/bbcups.html

I prefer the Hozan lockring wrench, modified by Harris Cyclery: http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/tools/fixedgear.html (first lockring wrench on the list)

Sheldon's homemade fixed cup remover is also perfect (it looks confusing now, but if you ever need to use it--which, like the above poster mentioned shouldn't be too often--it's great... and cheap.)

As far as I can remember (I used to own a 73 Grand Prix), the bolts should be 14mm, and a standard ratchet set would be fine for that. The park crank puller will work fine (the proprietary threading is only inside the bb shell, and not the crank arms themselves).

Hope this helps. Good luck!

EDIT: Oops, beat to the punch! Listen to Neal.

Thanks, guys. You've cleared up some issues for me. I am still confused about the threading though. I am going to do some more research and find out for sure what the tpi is on this bike.

If all I want to do is open this bracket up, clean it, pop in some fresh grease and bearings, and adjust it does it matter what the threading is? I am getting the feeling that the threading only matters if your are trying to replace parts.

I think once I start tearing into this thing it will make more sense. Part of my problem is that I don't have a back up bike and I commute on this one every day. I am trying to reduce the down time by getting everything ready before I start.

You are correct. As long as you're just overhauling the existing bottom bracket, it doesn't matter what threading it is, because you already know the bottom bracket that's in there is compatible with the threading of the shell.

Cool. One less thing to worry about.

I hope I won't confuse things further, but why does he need to remove pedals to service his bottom bracket?

Whoops! You're right; no need to remove the pedals. My head was on Ashtabula cranks there at the moment!

Neal