So I've got a very nice Ti frame that I am upgrading the groupset on. The parts are in the mail and I'll be getting them on Wed. In anticipation I took off the cranks and removed the shimano cartridge BB. I don't remember it being particularly difficult to remove and I made sure to pull out my trusty park tool bike repair manual to run me through the process. I don't remember any brute force. The threads look fine to my untrained eye and I scrubbed them down with some degreaser, WD40 a toothbrush and some elbow grease.


As the new parts aren't in yet, I wanted to see if I could re-install the cartridge BB easily to see how the hard work on my cleaning paid off. The non drive side cup installs like butter. I can thread it on by hand easily and it seems secure. The drive side is a little tricky. I can get a few revolutions easily enough, but then it starts to stick and requires that I start to use a tool. Looking at the non drive side it appears that the axle is coming in slightly off kilter. Not wanting to force the issue I backed it out. I believe the last time I serviced this BB the same thing happened to me. I was able to thread the DS on by hand several turns and then needed to break out the wrench. Last time I didn't check to see if the axle was coming in center, so I didn't stop. However last time I was also able to screw everything down and it didn't require a Herculean amount of force and everything seemed just fine. I'm also not using a particularly large wrench. Maybe only 8-10 inches long and I'm not the strongest guy. Doesn't real damage require some real strength?


However I'm also OCD and paranoid that I have some damage to my threads. I've gone over them with a bright light and I truly can't see any obvious deformations. The threads all appear to be of uniform depth throughout the shell. I don't see any metal shavings or missing chunks. I also have some spare external BB cups for use with a hollowtech crank lying around (new cranks are going to be hollowtech as well) Curious I tried threading these on, and both NDS and DS thread on easily and firmly by hand, and only need a tool to crank them down at the very end. Once installed there is no play.


So what's the problem here? Are my threads misaligned? I never had any problems with the BB before. Is the old BB cartridge somehow off kilter? I looked at the threads on the cartridge and they seem fine. There is a tiny amount of dirt I can't seem to remove. Perhaps the answer is that this is all normal and the axle will normally straighten out as it engages into the NDS cup when I screw things down? A self correction that I didn't necessarily catch last time I did this?


Part of this is just curiosity, but part of me wonders is there something I should be doing before my new parts arrive? I've read about facing, but I don't think that will be necessary as it is unpainted Ti. I guess I could also have the threads chased? That also seems un-necessary, but what do I know. Anyways, it's raining and I'm day dreaming about my new dream machine.