Help with french thread bottom brackets
 

Hi, I've got an old 1981 Peugeot bike with a french thread bottom bracket, and the problem with it it's that the axis is too wide, 120 cm., so I would buy a narrower bottom bracket, but my question is if the only difference would be the wide of the axis, so that I could reuse the other parts, and replace only the axis, so I wouldn't need to buy another french thread bb. Many thanks.

Correct. If the cups are in good shape you can keep them and simply replace the spindle (or axis as you call it.) Not sure where you're posting from, perhaps it's called an axis elsewhere?

Yes if the cups are good you can just free ball a different axcel on what you have. Also if you have few bucks you could just buy one of the recently released Velo Orange bottom brackets for $50 made for this purpose.

http://www.amazon.com/Orange-Grand-C...3161309&sr=8-4

Thank you both for your quick answers. The velo orange bottom bracket would be really awesome, but the cup from my drive side refuses to get loose and I can not remove it anyway. I've searched many bb's in amazon but I can not find an spindle (I'm from Spain, sorry I mistook axis for axle, in spanish both terms are the same: "eje", there are spindles but cannot be shipped here), would you know if it's possible to remove the spindle from any square type bottom bracket or are there only some kind in which would be possible, and which tool I would need? Really thanks.

You need to measure the spread between the races (or "shoulders" if that translates better) on the spindle you have. Campy Record spindles (depending on exactly where you measure on the race) are going to be about 50-52mm apart. Stronglights are going to be about 54-56mm apart. Other makes may be even a little different. So spindles are not entirely interchangeable. You also have offset/assymmetry to consider. On a Peugeot with a 120mm spindle, I'm guessing you have a Stronglight bottom bracket. These also have a drive-side offset. What crank are you trying to install?

As an example of how you sometimes have to piece things together (but not a French bike), my avatar picture is a Stronglight crank (requiring a 118mm ISO spindle) mated with a Stronglight spindle, but with Campy Victory (thin/non-rifled) cups; all because I could not find any English-threaded Stronglight cups. But Campy record cups would not work - and Campy Record spindles were not long enough.

Thanks, yes I am aware of that sizing, in the meantime I've learnt that my drive side doesn't loose probable because has been used a thread-locker, also the cause been probably what www.sheldonbrown says about the right threading in the right side been prone to loose.
In the park tool site also i've seen that I would need an adjustable type, in opposition to a cartridge type, but it seems that the adustable type is older and I don't know of any one.
At least I've found all I need in bikeparts, Thanks and cheers.

If you need a shorter axle, and the cup races are in good shape, get a 118mm Stronglight axle. They pop up from time to time on e-Bay for <$20.

+1 on the coment about Stronglight double cranks needing at least 118mm long spindles. That is what is typically used on that brand crank, I suspect TA cranks will be similar. If you are going with a non-Stronglight, non-French ISO tapered crank, you might need a spindle legnth more towards 110 to 113mm. So be careful before deciding which legnth spindle to get. 120mm and longer is usually used on triple cranks.
There's a lot of used and new Stronglight spindles of different legnths that go for auction at eBay too.

Chombi