Campagnolo Bottom Bracket issues
 

Hi there

I'm having some sizing issues with a Campagnolo Bottom Bracket and the cranks it's associated with. It's a Record BB, and when I screw it in, the drive-side spindle sticks out much less than the non-drive side. I've opened it up, and found that there are a couple of spacers or seals or something inside on the drive side, that can be removed. I've attached pictures of the BB with various numbers of the spacers in.It seems to make a difference, but this being the first Campagnolo BB I've ever used, I wanted to make sure those things can be left out?
When the crank bolts on with both spacers in, it bottoms out on the drive side against the cup. With one spacer out it doesn't seem to, but as I said, I want to be sure that it's ok to do this, as there is no information with the BB in its box. I also have an external spacer I can fit, but don't think this is needed as it doesn't change the location of the spindle relative to the cups enough for the crank to stop bottoming out.

Cheers!

usually those spacers are for use with a larger BB shell on the bike. is your bike's BB shell 68mm wide, or some wider size like 72mm?

also, they can be used to tweak the 'chain line' (how far the chainrings on the crank are from the centerline of the bike), which determines what angle the chain hits the rear cassette at. optimal is usually such that if the chain is on the middle cog in back, and the middle cog of a front triple, the chain is in a straight line. if your front is a double, then split the difference, the big chainring and small chainring should displace the chain the same amuont from that imaginary straight line.

What do the enclosed destructions say? …it should come with a sheet of destructions enclosed!
HTH -
- Wil

Hi

Yeah I didn't buy it new, it came with a random assortment of Campy stuff, so I'm in the dark as to actual instructions!

The BB shell is 68mm, so should I just fit it with one of the spacers and check chainline, and if it all looks good then proceed? My normal test for 'centredness' is the distance between the pedal-end of the crank arms and the chain-stays. If it's within 1mm or less then good to go.

if you have a double crank, the proper test for chainline is to sight between the middle of the cassette and the middle of the chainrings... if thats straight, you're perfect. IMHO, its OK to be a bit to the right of that as you're usually using the big chainring with the smaller cogs...

Cool, I'll give that a go. You've answered my question as to whether those spacers were even meant to come out!

Edit: So I have fitted it with one spacer in and one out, and it seems to have come together quite well. I can't check the chainline until I get the wheels and cassette sorted, but for now I think my BB and crank situation is under control!

Thanks!

I have a new Campy BB which I intend or use on a restoration, next time I'm in my garage, I grab the booklet and scan it and send you a .PDF if that would be of any help - you might find a copy on the Campy site, they're usually pretty good like that!
Good Luck -
- Wil

PS - put campagnolo bottom bracket manual into google, and you'll learn all you need to know!

Hi guys, I hope I don't offend anyone by going a little off center of topic. ;) I'm not an "actual" professional-type mechanic, but I do enjoy wrenching on things, so I've learned a few things here & there. I've changed a few cartridge BBs before, but never did a spindle & cups type, until during the last couple weeks. My motivation was, I have an old Bertin bike (French) with a French-threaded BB, and the BB itself, the cranks (three-armed), chainrings, & all the associated hardware, including the elusive dust caps, are all TA branded. Yep, even the 3 chainring bolts have a tiny little TA on them. :D I've cleaned everything well, & reassembled it, and got the BB adjusted pretty darn well (just a tiny bit of slop), after a few tries & a little cussing. I've read about the fixed cup being a bit of a problem at times, for French-threaded BBs, but mine was pretty stuck, so I never removed it anyways, just the non-fixed cup & the innards. Is there anything else I should be careful of, or watch for? Thanks. :)

The spacers are seals and both belong in the BB; if you remove either of them the driver side cup/retainer will not support the bearings. The record double BB is 102mm symmetrical (the triple is 111mm asymmetrical), so there shouldn't be more spindle on one side or the other. When you say you installed the BB, did you actually torque down the non-drive side? The drive side of the cartridge usually will not bottom out in the cup/retainer until it is torqued to spec. I don't know if this will help but the parts diagram is in this pdf form Campy. http://www.campagnolo.com/repository...spares06_A.pdf

The only problem with a French BB is the fixed/drive side threads are not reversed, so if it is not torqued to spec it could come loose. The best bet is what you did; leave the fixed side alone, service the "innards" and re-assemble. BTW, there should be no slop at all. The magic spot is no slop but no binding; did I just hear more cussing?:lol:

It is as you see in the pictures, it will only go as far as that and no more, as the piece in the centre stops the non-drive cup from moving any more. When you take one of those seals/spacers out, the drive side moves further along the spindle, and from the feel of it, there's an o-ring that it pops over and into place.

last shimano spindle i installed, i actually used a torque wrench and was suprised it was more torque than i expected

It looks like they are just spacers with seals on them, when you fit them to the shaft without putting the drive-side cup and retainer over, they are the same diameter as the bearings, and are thus covered by the same part of the retainer. I did a couple of comparisons and it doesn't seem like the bearings would be unsupported by the cup/retainer, in fact with both spacers in there it looks like the inner-most bearing is unsupported.

The instructions: http://www.campagnolo.com/repository...cket-06-06.pdf

It looks like you have two "seal rings". You should only have one as per the instructions.

Thanks, I'll see how it goes with just the one fitted!

note the 50 ft-lbs of torque! follow the instructions (they ARE in english, following the all Italian section,hah!)

Okay, my bad. I see that the ring and seal are two different parts but with your photo they were combined as one piece and since you had two of the combined rings, you obviously had an extra one in there. Good jog figuring it out..