Originally Posted by
Davidmilne
The bottom bracket shell is completely smooth on the inside ( no threads whatsoever) AND it is a very awkward inner diameter, 38mm.
It was designed to take either an 'oil bath' BB if it's old or a sealed unit BB if later. You can use an old engineer's trick and shim out the BB shell with shiny calendar paper, cut to the BB width minus any shoulder the BB unit might have. Once you have rolled up the paper to fit inside the shell, you just keep trimming off the unrolled length till you get the desired and very tight fit.