bb bearing repack
 

Forgive me if this is a repeat. It's the end of a long, hot day, and the last two searches I've done took an hour each and turned up nothing. So I'm gonna just dive in.
I bought an '84 LeTour Luxe sight unseen, with plans to ride a century and a half on it immediately. I did that over the weekend, and now have time to open up the bb and see how it looks. Bone dry. So now I'm going to ask for opinions.
Would you automatically put new bearings in, and would you bother with the cage? The mechanic at the LBS suggested it might run smoother without the cage, because I could put an extra bearing in. This is my first bb repack.
Thanks in advance.

It won't be smoother without the cage. The important thing is that the cups and axle are not pitted. If the bearings are still polished they can be reused.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/bb-adjust.html

I usually do away with the cage if they are bad. If they are still serviceable, I just clean and re-pack them. Only because I have a bottle full of bearings, and not to many caged sets. Works about the same either way as far as I can tell.

I've found the bearings and cage to be mashed up before, but the bearing cups to still be in good condition. It pays to clean and inspect any borderline parts before replacing them. If it's completely dry, it's possible that parts may be worn. Check both bearing cups as well as the condition of the axle. One extra bearing shouldn't make a lot of difference as long as they're free moving and well greased. The caged type just make things easier to reassemble IMO.

A little off topic but did you happen to take notice of which way the bearing cage fit in the bottom bracket?

A valid question. And though I didn't actively pay attention, as I should have, I believe the open side was to the inside.

Great article. Thanks. Someday I will learn to navigate Sheldon's site.

Sheldon recommends putting them in loose, so I'll try that way first. If I fail miserably, I'll have the cages to fall back on.

It really isn't difficult. Grease up the cup, stick the bearings in the grease and assemble. The grease usually does an adequate job of keeping the bearings in place.

On caged bearings-ball side goes in the cups-same as headsets.

i've got several bikes with cup and ball BBs. when repacking i would always replace the old bearings (with or without cages) when necessary, with new loose ball bearings.

after several episodes of temporarily losing the bearings up the downtube and out the chainstays, and up the seat tube, i have now vowed to use only caged bearings on the bottom bracket, and replace any BB's that need replacing with new cartridge types.

enough already...

+1 Always replace the bearings with loose ball bearings. You are that far into the bike, why not do a complete job. I pay about 2 cents each for 1/4 inch loose ball bearings, so it costs me 44 cents to replace them, plus a couple of cents worth of grease.

Net, open up the hubs and get ready to replace them as well. If you continue to ride the bike without servicing the bearings, you run the risk of damaging cups and cones, which will be a pretty big hassle, and cost a lot more than the cheap ball bearings.

Any bike shop will gladly sell you ball bearings (marked up of course, they have a shop to pay for).

Why waste material if they are not worn?

I'm paying 3 cents for bearings, and I can live with that. I agree with wrk101. For that little bit of money, why not just do it up? Plus, in this case, I personally rode it 150 miles dry, and who knows how long it's been that way.
I just finished putting it back together and it was shockingly easy--just like packing wheel bearings in a car. So now I'm going to wait until tomorrow to put the crank back together in case it really was too easy and I did something wrong. Give you all a chance to tell me what mistakes I might have made.