Frozen cups in any particular case aside, here's a link to what Sheldon says. I still don't see my error in understanding.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/bbsize.html#threading
Quoting an excerpt "...prone to problems due to right (right-side, not right-threaded: my words) threaded fixed cup, which tends to unscrew itself in use."
How can a cup "unscrew" itself except in the direction of the rotation of the crank arm? Forward, to the right. That means it turns left to tighten, not "righty tighty".
Still, the original point to my pun is still being missed. It wasn't to argue the technical details on this or any particular case, it was to simply point out the obsolete and faulty nature of the old French BB. It simply is without question "non-standard" and requires a focus that the standard, contemporary threaded BB necessarily doesn't.
By the way, how can one tell if a cup is pitted without removing it? To each his own but rebuilding a BB without inspecting all parts is unacceptable to me. Leaving an unexamined cup in place unless it absolutely frozen beyond removal is a shortcut I'd never take.
J
P.S. I'm moving on.
Originally Posted by
conspiratemus1
Look again. Sheldon reminds us that French BBs are right-hand, i.e., rightie-tighty. And my old Jeunet does have a right-threaded fixed cup, which did unscrew once in 35 years.
As a previous poster said, you shouldn't need to remove the fixed cup unless it is pitted. (Usually the spindle and the balls wear out long before the cups do.) If your new spindle won't fit through the hole in the cup, then yes, of course you will have to replace the cup. (Been so long since I've seen a cottered crank spindle, I can't remember for the life of me if they are the same diameter.) I would replace just the balls (throw out the cages) and spindle and leave both cups alone if I possibly could.