horrocks44

Hello all,
I'm currently rebuilding an old 5-speed Viscount Alamo of my grandfathers and, after stripping down and repainting it, i've found it has a bottom bracket problem.
This would be easy, if it were a standardised piece, but for some reason it has a 65mm BB shell and a 134mm spindle. I understand you can only get 68-72mm shells and i need some help, I dont want to change the whole crank set (not one bit) but don't want a crunchy noise coming up from the bottom of the bike, what can I do?
Would v. much appreciate any help, this is my first bike rebuild and I'm very new to the whole subject, so please don't be too scientific!
Thanks,
Josh

JanMM

There is a little information about bottom brackets in this old BF Viscount thread. https://www.bikeforums.net/archive/in.../t-206013.html

Does your bike have the original aluminum fork? Viscount forks were recalled at some point. Search for "Viscount death fork". That will also get you other Viscount info.

With any luck, someone with actual hands-on experience with a Viscount will chime in.

SBinNYC

The Viscount had a non-standard vintage bottom bracket. They used sealed bearings. The spindles were held in place by circlips.

If you remove one circlip, you can hammer out the spindle and the opposite sealed bearing. They use standard bearings that you can replace. You can hammer out the opposite bearing with a drift punch through the bottom bracket.

In hammering in the new bearings, you will need a tool that limits your hammer to the outer bearing surface. I used a socket of appropriate diameter. To make life a little easier, I put the bearings in the freezer for half an hour before hammering them back into the bottom bracket. Ditto for the spindle. I waited for the bearings to warm up before pushing the spindle through. The chill contracted the metal a bit and made it easier to insert.

Mr IGH

All the Viscounts or just the Aerospace 10 speeds before Panasonic bought them? (OP has a 5-speed "Alamo")

horrocks44

SBinNYC, I'm not sure what you mean, I've had the bracket out already now, I'm pretty sure it's just a spindle, bearings and the cups. The bearings definately don't have to be hammered in. I took everything out, gave it a good clean and new grease, and reassembled the bracket, it still snagged. The bearings look fine, the spindle and cups are very slightly pitted but i wouldn't have thought enough to cause this amount of resistance when assembled. It looks like I will have to replace the bottom bracket but i don't know if i'll find one that'll fit with the smaller bracket shell size. Your advice here is probably in relation to the Viscount Aerospace models, the Alamo is one of their later, cheaper models, more like the Indy 500 and is 5, not 10 speed, thanks very much though.

JanMM, the Alamo never had the aluminium fork of the early aerospace models, Despite being a 5-speed the Alamo (i think) came after the Aerospace, perhaps just before Yamaha took the company over.

fietsbob

NB, a press is better than a hammer, when installing sealed bearings,
a low cost one can be made with Allthread rod, nuts and washers,

Steady pressure rather than sharp blows.

feel old, I bought a Viscount new, in the shops . it was stolen ..

Bianchigirll 

this a good time for lots of pictures!!

Mr IGH

Use any 68mm bb and add a 1.5mm spacer to the drive side.

JohnDThompson 

Only the English Trusty-built Viscounts had the funky sealed bottom brackets. After Yamaha moved production to Japan, they used standard threaded bottom brackets. I suspect this is what the OP has.

Mr IGH

I figured that, OP has confirmed his bb is a threaded 65mm, a 1.5mm spacer on the drive side will compensate.

horrocks44

Thanks very much all, I was beginning to come to that conclusion myself, reckon I could probably use old locking nut thing from the old bracket to space out the new one.
anyway, she's beginning to come back together now, looking lovely, gentlemans roadbike rather than anything racey.

Mr IGH

Lockring has right hand thread, fixed cup (drive side) has left hand thread. An LBS should have a few 1mm spacers (close enough).

nateb

this is a thread bump i dont feel too bad about because at least this one is from this year.

all the viscount threads have helped me a great deal, really thanks to all you viscount mechanics here on BF, made my life less stressful

right now my problem is hammering out the spindle. i have been using a pretty strong rubber mallet because i dont want to damage the spindle but i can not get this baby loose. i have stepped up the hardness of the mallet and just cant get this thing to budge.

any tips for hammering this thing out with out damaging the spindle? (the phil wood replacement is $88 so i wanna keep this thing intact)
thanks for any help guys!