I’m in the process of cleaning and polishing my old Raleigh Team MTB circa 88-89 and took the chain off to clean it and the bottom bracket sounds like a bag of nails and has a lot of play in it.

Did’nt realise it was that bad 😳

Just wondered if there is a specific tool to remove the BB on a bike of this era, and if its different from modern bikes ?

Also, any ideas on which BB to replace the original ?

Thanks

Simon

At a guess, it will be a cup and cone square taper so new bearings and grease might save it. You’ll probably need 3 specific bottom bracket tools. Fixed cup spanner, pin spanner and lockring spanner. However, cheap bottom brackets didn’t often fit standard tools

If you are going to replace the old one with a new sealed one , the. Just remove the old one with a cold chisel or similar
Cave man antics.

If its been in a while soak lots of plus gas on it first and a little heat may help

Or just give it to lbs and get a shimano fitted

if you can identify what fittings you have and therefore what tools you need you have a choice between buying the tools or taking to lbs. I changed two yesterday having been avoiding for weeks. about an hour in total plus time going to excellent local shop (berkshire bikes) to get new bottom brackets. putting bikes into workshop would have meant being without the bikes for a few days and would have cost more…

p.s. loads of instuctional videos on youtube for this sort of thing

If it’s been in from new good luck getting it out…