How to adjust play in RaceFace crankset & BB

I put a RaceFace Evolve crankset on my fatbike a bit over a year ago. I just noticed that a bit of play could be felt at the end of the cranks (pushing on outside face of crank w/o rotating).

So, I disassembled the crankset, removed the BB from the frame and cleaned all of the old grease/antisieze off. The bearings spun freely and weren’t gritty at all. So, I relubed and reassembled everything. BB and crank were torqued to spec (35 and 45 ft lbs) with a micrometer type torque wrench.

The play is still there! 😕

How do I fix it? ❓

is it both cranks moving or just the side that goes onto the splines?If it’s just the one side then try some loctite bearing compound (614 I think) on the splines to make the fit a bit tighter.

If it’s both moving and the bearings seem fine then Id suggest theres an issue betweem axle and the bearing themselves…

Torque setting on the RF crank is irrelevant. It’ll tighten all the way until it “hits bottom”. If you still have play then you need to adjust with BB spacers and crank axle spacers.

marmoset – I can feel play from either crank; its not play in the driveside crank splines. The BB has plastic bushings that fit on the crank spindle; they were in good shape (not cracked or anything).

sr – right crank bolt definitely bottomed out with a regular ratchet, and then torqued to 45 ft lbs per RF instructions. Its a fatbike crank, and the spacers were supposed to be configured correctly for a 100 mm BB out of the box. I didn’t remove or change any on the spacers, so they should be configured correctly.

Ah okay, sounds like a spacing issue then – see if you can get hold of a wavy spring washer to place between the non drive side crank and BB – may just work in taking out the side play. My FSA and Sram cranks use them to good effect, although I’m not sure how much crush is in them and what movement they’re designed to take out.

Ok – looking on the RaceFace parts page[/url] there are a bunch of different spacers. 😯

Which one do I need?

I’d suggest a spindle spacer of sorts, rather than a BB spacer. How much movement are you looking at? The elastomer spacer would be my chioce if it’s only a small amount…

Just got a new rf fatbike crank and bb out of the box last week for a 100mm shell .

There were 3 spacers, 2 drive side, 1 nds
Two small elastomer spacers that I have on the spindle, drive side. These give a bit of fine tuning I think

It’s nipped up to just take out all the play… It’s the first time I have set a fatbike up but it looks and spins fine…

Did you space it out correctly?

Ive just killed a Saint crank arm from too many spacers. Caused play then wear.

Any chance the BB shell is slightly undersized after enthusiastic facing?

If the entire crank assembly is mobile then it’s not an arm tightening issue but shaft location (so, spacer packing)

Don’t RF do a 1mm spacer as well as the usual 2.5’s?

You need to try and get hold of some of the thin shims that come with Chris king BB’s and use them to take up any play.
I’m using them on two different RF fatbike cranks, one running with a RF BB and the other a King BB.

Edit.
The white shims in the middle of this picture.

Have you followed the Race Face fitting guide? Not taking the piss, but they are different to Shimano / SRAM etc.

Take a look

http://www.raceface.com/instructions/CRANKS/Evolve%20XC%20’05-’07_XTYPE-Crankset.pdf

You’ll have to copy and paste, it’s a PDF.

The rubber type spacer that comes with the cranks is to compensate for the width of the BB shell. But there is a tolerance as what that width should be.

Where do you get the race face spindle spacers and elastomers from? I can’t see a buy option on the RF website…

They should all come with a new crank. If not Silverfish have them on their website.

SILVERFISH

This is what you need:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/race-face-x-type-chainline-spacer/rp-prod29489

Ha! I see there’s a slight 200% markup on the CRC ones! Ignore my link and go to Silverfish I think 😉

Just noticed that Silverfish delivery is £4.95 !!!!!!!

CRC may well be cheaper.

How much movement are you looking at?

Just enough to feel, not see. Like a cup and cone hub bearing that needs a little adjustment.

Did you space it out correctly?

Yes. 2 2.5 mm BB spacers drive side, 1 non-drive. Spacers on the crank spindle weren’t touched. RF attaches the crankarm in a completely different way to the Shimano ones with pinchbolts anyhow.

Any chance the BB shell is slightly undersized after enthusiastic facing?

No chance; the shell is unfaced (paint still left on the faces).

Have you followed the Race Face fitting guide?

Yes; that’s where I got my torque values from. It doesn’t cover their fatbike cranks, though. Fat spacer info is at http://www.raceface.com/comp/pdf/FATBIKE-CRANK-CLEARANCES.pdf

Sounds like you probably just need one more 1mm spindle spacer – on the non-drive side if you’re happy that your chainline is right.

IIRC old X-type instructions have fairly detailed instructions on checking for play and adding/removing 1mm spindle spacers accordingly. They are essentially how the bearing pre-load is set, so it’s actually fairly critical they’re right, but it’s a bit of a faffy job winding RF cranks on and off to do it, particularly if they’re not the self-extracting type.

Update 1

I went through the spares box, and found a BB spacer that was 3 mm thick instead of the 2.5 mm that most are. Swapped in the thicker one and no more play, at least on the workstand. I haven’t ridden it yet, though.

LBS is supposed to get some 1 mm spindle spacers as well.