RiDE

I bought a used bike last week and pretty much ended up stripping it bare. it seemed like the previous owner didn't do any maintenance at all, everything was bone dry and the headset was gritty with dirt. i took apart the bottom bracket, cleaned out the races, bearings, cups, and took out any residue left on the spindle. problem is, when i installed it, it still felt gritty if you turn it by hand. the only way to make it smooth is to loosen the cups to the brink that you can pretty much loosen it by hand alone. am i installing it wrong or are the bearings just shot? it looked ok to me... there were no grooves on the spindle that i could see.

i have another bottom bracket on order but if i can still use this one i'd like to save some $60 if possible. i've heard that ultegra BBs are much more reliable than the dura ace BB-7700s... should I just go with that one?

sydney

Make your life easier and put an ultegra in it.

white lobster

Ditto. If it's that crunchy, then the bearing races are probably shot, and no amount of overhauling is going to make it like new again. You can replace the ball bearing races on the axle, but you can't replace the needle bearing races, and they're the ones that tend to die first.

I've been able to make my girlfriend's 7700 bottom bracket last for many years, but that's just because I overhaul it every six months. It's not fun. Meanwhile, my 7500 cartridge lasted for 5+ years, and I never touched it. Cartridges are nice.

If you've got a 7700 BB on the way, just remember to put plenty of grease in there before installing, and make sure you've gushed lots of grease inside the recesses in the plastic seals that slide over the spindle. If done correctly, and even if the bearing is adjusted correctly, the grease alone should make the axle very hard to turn by hand.

RiDE

Yeah I've got another 7700 coming in... unfortunately shipping it back would offset whatever savings I get if I go with the Ultegra so I might as well keep it.

Considering the condition the bike arrived in... I guess I was just too hopeful that I could still make it work. One question though... should I rinse out that cosmoline grease that comes with new shimano parts? So do I take everything apart again and regrease it after?

Thanks for the responses guys.