Had a nightmare in the shed tonight – but came out smiling (albeit covered in oil and swarf)
Decided to fit some bearings into an old LX HTII bottom bracket, rather than buy a new one.
So, ordered 2 61805 2RS bearings from these chaps – http://www.akbearings.co.uk – only £1.60 each, and they turned up next day 🙂
First, take off top hats and remove outer seals. The bearings were shagged beyond belief (memo to Shimano – using sealed bearings would be a GOOD idea).
Managed to drift one side out using a socket. But the other side was machined slightly differently, so I couldn't do this. Ended up spending an hour taking out the inner race and balls, dremelling/cutting away at the (VERY hard) outer race, and finally tapping it out using a cold chisel. A lot of swearing was done.
Cleaned up the cups (and filed a few of the burrs I'd created while trying to get that bl**dy race out).
Comes to fitting the new bearings. What's this then – they're 7mm deep, and the old ones are only 5mm deep. Turns out that Shimano used 5mm bearings on some early HTII BBs, and then a 2mm seperate outer seal to make up the difference.
So, tap in the new bearings. Throw away the seperate seals. And fit the top hats.
Ahhh, they don't go on all the way. They have a 2mm internal lip that would normally sit inside the **** seal I just threw away. Right, Dremel time again. Carefully remove inner step/lip.
Yes, they fit 😀
Clean up the parts, fit middle sleeve, put back in a box, and go back inside.
Now to most people that would seem a daft way of spending an evening. Getting dirty and annoyed at some small pieces of metal and plastic. But I really enjoyed that 😉