cutter57

Hi. I have an old Raleigh Mustang bicycle that I bought in the United Arab Emirates while stationed there during Desert Storm. It is a low-end bicycle, but I wanted to keep and use the frame for sentimental reasons. I have replaced many of the components, but I cannot seem to find a bottom bracket for it. I am posting a pic of the current one. It is large, 2" diameter.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks

oddjob2

If you have the proper tools, pull the cranks off both sides, then remove the left side by cup. If the cups are good as well as the bb axle, you may just need some new bearings and grease only.

Kimmo

That's a frame for a 1-piece crank with a special BB for 3-piece cranks; not so common.

Agree you should prolly re-use it; it has much larger bearings than 3-piece BBs, so it's prolly fine unless you've ridden it a long way poorly adjusted.

onespeedbiker

As Kimmo said the bottom bracket shell is referred to as American and the bottom bracket is usally a one piece or "Ashtabula" (I have no idea where the name comes from). There are two kinds of square taper BB the will fit your BB shell; open and sealed bearings. Yours probably has the open variety such as this conversion https://www.amazon.com/Pyramid-Piece-.../dp/B000AO9O12. You can also buy the sealed bearing variety that look like this https://www.danscomp.com/products-PAR...Sealed_BB.html. The BB should come apart following these instructions https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-...racket-service even though yours have separate crank arms. Kimmo is also correct that these BB weigh a ton, but they use large ball bearings and are pretty much bullet proof unless they come loose and you ride that way for a while.

cutter57

Thanks for the responses everyone. I have the proper tools, so I think I will start by getting the old BB out and seeing if it can be re-used. If not, onespeedbiker's links will come in very handy.