fiataccompli

I'm wondering if anyone here has run into this & navigated through a removal without trashing the bottom bracket shell. This is an aluminum frame w/ the drive side (LHT, not Italian) cup from a Campy Chorus BB installed. I'm guessing a previous owner or mechanic thought the cup was right-hand threaded & managed to completely strip out the teeth for the removal/installation tool. Obviously, it's also possible there is major galling going on and the cup is completely seized, but I have hope since the other side apparently came off without issues...and, it makes sense (sort of) that someone could have fouled up the cup out of ignorance. Anyway, I figured I could try a few things, but before I head down a path that allows no U-turns, I might appreciate any thoughts, feedback or experience someone here has to share. Ideas I have are...

1. cut a slot (or two) in the Campy cup without damaging the bike frame shell and then use a chiseling effect to start turning the cup

2. drill 2 holes in the cup and use those with some type of pin configuration to turn it

3. find some object to use as a larger diameter removal tool (I have something like 40+ various, many "obsolete" freewheel tools..surely some would work for this) and then modify the cup with a dremel to use that tool to remove the cup.

4. turn it using a pneumatic chisel

5. resign to simply run 9/10 Campy on this bike and just leave the cup in place forever (which is sort of an option, but I was going to run some lesser sort of BB/crank/group)

thanks in advance!

HillRider

Is there enough of a lip on the flange to get a big Channel Lock or pipe wrench on it or clamp it horizontally in a bench vise and use the frame to turn it out?

fiataccompli

maybe the bench vise. those lips are somewhat fragile (I've seen a few broken ones), but here's a MM or so

AnkleWork

Heat?

rmfnla

Pipe wrench...

Homebrew01

Did someone try turning the wrong direction to remove it ??
Grind a few flats on the outer flange, then pipe wrench, big adjustable, or bench vise .......

rmfnla

Don't need flats for a pipe wrench...

rccardr 

Sheldon tool? Big threaded bolt, two nuts, washer. Great for removing LHT fixed cups.

fiataccompli

Sheldon tool? I'll have to google it.

yes I think someone (not me!!) wrenched hard the wrong direction on it.

blakcloud

Bottom of this page. Tool Tips--Bottom Bracket Cups. I hope it works for you.

gfk_velo

Depends on how confident and / or well equipped as a mechanic you are.

We get these in the workshop from time to time and find the most time / cost effective solution is to use a pad saw to make two cuts, at about 30 - 40 degrees to each other, working through the hole that the axle would normally emerge from, down to the BB shell, being VERY careful not to cut too deeply into the BB shell (max 0.5 mm).

You can usually then collapse the segment of the cup you have cut "inwards". This will free the rest of the cup. Run a thread chaser through the BB to clean the threads up - you will inevitably have touched them with the saw and this is just good practice anyway, especially after taking out a cup that hs (presumably) seized in through galvaic corrosion.

I suspect other methods might not work, as if the Campag splines have stripped, we know that they'll withstand 90 - 100nm of torque at least, and other methods involving pin spanners and the like will possibly fail at lower torques than that.

Having said that, all the other methods, bar heat, are probably worth a whirl, as none preclude the method above if they fail and all carry a lower risk.

Avoid heat - alu frames, even if welded, not bonded (where it is an absolute no-no) are often heat-treated post welding and the usual temp that is done at is in the 150 - 220 deg C range ... heating with a blow-lamp or similar, it's easy to exceed that locally and you may compromise a tube - you are working around the bottom of the downtube & downtube failures are never pretty ... using lots of boiling water is a possibility, to try and break the corrosion by expansion ... then maybe some other, less drastic method of turning the cup could work.

fiataccompli

that's probably the approach I'll take. I guess i'd call myself a highly advanced amateur mechanic, though I'm capable of screwing stuff up as well as anyone! I'm skeptical about the strength of the lip on the cup. The theory I'm banking on is that this was stripped out because someone was turning it CCW thinking they were loosening it & ended up putting enough force on it to strip the splines. I guess the surgical approach of cutting two sections out of the cup works regardless of why it got this way.

Reynolds 

I'd try the big bolt first (cheap, easy, no risk to the frame) and if it doesn't work, the pad saw.