I am overhauling a bike with a Campagnolo bottom bracket, and it had (part of) the plastic sleeve that is supposed to keep out dirt and grime. From what I can tell, it is missing the second smaller part (and the piece I have has a large crack). I saw a few on eBay for sale, but they seem quite pricey for a tiny bit of plastic. So a couple of questions:

1) Does anyone have measurments of that second smaller piece (2110/1) so that I can try to make my own?
2) Or does any generic bottom bracket sleeve work (even the accordion style ones)? If so, where can I get one that doesn't charge a ton for shipping? I saw these: but shipping and min order is a little high.

Sort of trial and error at width, but a sheet of straight plastic or vinyl cut and rolled works well. It’ll likely stay put if the right width is determined.

Eighty bazillion Japanese bottom brackets have plastic accordion sleeves. They work with anything. Campy two piece sleeves are actually crap. A simple fact. I've been throwing them away for about four decades.

If you buy as many old Campy equipped bikes as I have, you will find just as many, if not more Shimano accordion sleeves in the bottom bracket as two piece campy sleeves. If you or going the route of making your own I’d just do a one piece cylinder sleeve.

Stronglight, Omas, Gipiemme, Ofmega, lots of other accordion types out there, all way better than a Campy in every way.

Still, I can see the appeal of tutto Campag if the bike is more of a museum piece. Especially if the sleeve shows thru a big cutout in the shell.

They were not built to last though, so many of them split like yours, maybe most.

It was only in the past few years I bought a Campy BB with an intact sleeve. It arrived in the mail tightly wrapped and taped up. I carefully cut away the wrap and tape to find I had neatly dissected the plastic sleeve.

If you can't source one, and not worried about the esthetics, what about a few rounds of duct tape?
Best, Ben

Cant remember who suggested it, but someone told me to use a 2 liter Dr Pepper bottle and cut to fit, overlap an inch.

Thanks for jacking up the price, Chuck!

the "classic" method was to cut a suitable sleeve from an aluminum soda or beer can. A chunk of PET plastic from a soda bottle seems like a better solution, if only because it is less likely to poke or cut your skin.

Steve in Peoria

Since you called me Chuck I'll find one to throw away twice

If both elements were accounted for, a cleaning with lacquer thinner and some clear packaging tape works on the sleeve.

if the shell shows a cutout get the full two parts.

without the conical end my second choice is a Sugino.

for budget folk way back we used a business card.

Cut out bottom brackets get lined with beverage can aluminum. Look WAY cool !

concours judge approved

SJX426 is that the start of the dreaded Campy nr/sr spider crack? I hope I'm wrong.

suspicious minds. Chainsaw file to crank time.
catch it now

I'll chime in, too, because this is a serious safety concern.

That hairline crack can easily lead to a broken crank arm. Of course, they break when under heavy load and can easily land you on the street in an intersection with other vehicular traffic accelerating all around you.




I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

This is enlarged and a bit enhanced to bring out the subtleties in the original image.

No, I don't think you're wrong. Good catch!

It can require a very close look to detect the cracks that can be a problem. No idea if there is a crack in that picture, but I've found tiny cracks, filed them out, and then discovered at a later date, that my filing hadn't gone deep enough to really get rid of it.

This is for a Sugino AT crank, but it has the same design flaw that leaves two thin edges connecting the arm to the spider.
This is the small crack that I found during routine maintenance and inspection...




I used a chainsaw file to further round off the transition between arm and spider, and hopefully get past the end of the crack...




3 years later, when I had pulled the crank arm off (to clean the chainrings), I took a close look at that junction and found a crack again!




I've filed it out quite a bit further now and will continue to keep an eye on it (and keep taking photos).
A side note... I've begun using a bit of fine sandpaper wrapped around the chainsaw file to get a smoother surface. This reduces the stress risers a bit, but also gives me a better look at the surface. This should make it easier to see any residual crack.




I'll note that even with a good magnifier, it's hard to see the cracks. I've had better luck using the macro capabilities of my little point and shoot camera.
It would be nice to have access to a proper magnaflux dye and inspection system to detect cracks, but that's a fair bit of money.

Steve in Peoria

Exactly!

Indeed it is, though a catastrophic crank failure at a most inopportune moment in time would easily be vastly more costly.

Is there a reasonably inexpensive magaflux kit out there? I did some searching, and I think it was a few hundred dollars for one.
Right now, some proactive use of the file is cheaper, as would be a low-mileage Sugino AT crank from ebay.

Steve in Peoria

I was riding with a very large guy many years ago when he got out of the saddle after a stop sign and snapped off his Campy crank. I believe he swore off Campagnolo after that.

I don't understand the hate for the Campy BB sleeves, which seal up quite well, though I admit the accordion style is better. If Campagnolo deserves criticism on this, it is in continuing with the same design long after better ideas were out there. The biggest problem with the Campagnolo design is that the long section should go on the fixed cup side and it can be tough to get a used sleeve to mate correctly with the cup after it's installed. Yet you can't get the bearing retainer in place with the sleeve installed, and you can't use the 793/a fixed cup tool with the bearing in place. If you get all the pieces to fit up correctly, the system works quite well to keep junk from the inside of the tubes out of the bearings.

I think the best sleeve I've pulled out of a bike was just the other day when I disassembled a BB on a Bertin and found a piece of steel beer can nicely fitted, cut so that the motto "The beer that made Milwaukee famous" was perfectly centered. Schlitz--Breakfast of Champions!

aircraft spruce & specialty sells a crack check dye kit. Lasts a long time. I took some of mine down the street to a non destructive testing place and they x-rayed them. One crack.
‘truth is that while very annoying to inspect and file, I suggest file upon purchase, the take a rider down failures happen adjacent to the pedal eye or at about the shield logo stamping.
‘Not saying all, but every crank we at the shop that broke way back showed oxidizatiom at a percentage of the fracture line, so the trouble was lurking. All those cranks exhibited “polishing” or abrasion through the anodizing layer.
‘for the vast majority of owners that wear is most problem starting.

note of course the dark region, lurking to propagate and the black at the LH edge of the fracture plane AND at the stamping.
an ounce of prevention…

It took Campagnolo a long time to redesign this arm, they added material and went to more sophisticatedly CNC machining about the trouble point, these cranks have the ‘
‘no flute” arms and laser etched logo. 1983, just before the intro of Corsa Record. Probably after the death of Tullio to be implemented, noting the 50th anniversary group avoided machined fluting too.