time to upgrade to sealed BB
 

Hi all,

The old cup and cone bottom bracket on my commuter is knocking and I am planning to replace it with a sealed. The question is do you think I can do It without any special tools? I am planning to take the lockring off with a flathead screwdriver and mallet. The adjustable cup by hand or with a piece of wood with 2 nails sticking through at the right distance and the fixed cup with a bolt and stack of washers as on Sheldon's site. Do you think that will work. I just don't want to buy $30 worth of tools [hook spanner and pin spanner] for one use.

Crank is an old shimano fc-1055 double
bike is 1990 trek 1400.
I am planning on replacing it with a 68X113 cartridge Square taper BB.

Be careful removing the lockring that you don't slip and dent a tube (or yourself), but there is no reason that shouldn't work. I use a broken spoke as a pin spanner, and I've removed the fixed cup with a cheap headset wrench.

It will work and you won't hurt anything if you're careful. You will need to buy a special tool to install the cartridge BB.

I already have a bottom bracket spline adapter and crank extractor. Thanks for the responses.

If you don't care what happens to the lock ring, a large pair of Channellocks or Vise Grips can also be used to remove it. An improvised pin spanner will work unless the cup is really rusted in place, the, the Channellocks will also work.

The fixed cup can be removed via Sheldon's tool or by clamping the flats in a bench vise and using the frame as the lever to turn it out. Remember it is reverse (left hand) threaded.