stripped my lht down today, to fit all new gear.
came to remove the sqare taper bb, and it will not budge. got the left hand side off, but the drive side will not shift. bent a bbb bottom bracket tool trying, had another tool, fitted in a big set of stilsons, wont budge, used a length of scaffold over stilsons, still wont budge.

help, or ideas for nice strong stiff touring frame.

Simple one first… definitely doing it the right way? Drive side loosen clockwise, non drive side counter clockwise. Or, loosen towards the front of the bike.

I’ll stress, generally. If it’s Italian threaded then both sides are right threaded (lefty loosey)

Plus gas, hair dryer on the shell (expect you’ll have to borrow one)

deadkenny, you dont know about my past bike buying/building/selling history do you?

😆

Lay it stuck side down fill the BB with coke. Worth a try overnight.

I had this.

We did plusgas over a couple of days, sat frame outside on frosty night, and used freezing spray on bb, then poured boiling water on bb shell area of frame, while i stood on frame to hold it, mini oab walked up the scaffold pole that was clamped to tool that was bolted to bb, for about 5′ up poke and bounced.

It went. I did actually think we were going to snap the frame….

Have to admit I made the mistake of doing it the wrong way, though I did know they were different and done it before okay but brief moment of non concentration and merrily going the wrong way, putting loads of effort in, snapped the tool, hmm… hang on a minute! 😳

Now I’m always double checking thread direction for BBs and Pedals (annoyingly pedals are backwards to BBs).

Still not sure why BBs loosen in the direction you’re pedalling though.

Whack it. Secure the spanner so it doesn’t fall off . . and whack it.

Forgot to say that when I had this I’d already had to take an angle grinder to the cranks to get them off and was getting increasingly medieval on the bb. Mrs p got home (it was her bike) and sent me away before I did any more damage, then just clamped the tool onto what was left of the bb shell, fixed a spanner to it then spent about 10 mins gently tapping the spanner to get it moving. Of course she never mentions thus if I’m dealing with a stubborn bolt…

hot air gun or blow torch (with care) on the stuck crank then rest opposite side of bb on something solid and whack the crank with a soft faced hammer. This will break the crank free so it will pull off as it should.

cranks and left side came off easy.

19stone bloke on a scaffold pole is a lot of leverage. 😀

Its all that weight youve list tony the old you would have had it straight off

I really feel for ya Tony…… 😥

I`ve had this happen to me with a brand new frame bb build. Pace RC305 (remember them!!!) and a Royce square taper (Yes a Royce!! :oops:)

So, what did I not do….. have the threads chased to remove any anodizing that may have been there. drive side went in ok, the non went in roughly 1/3, got a little tight by hand and so got the tool out. Approx 1 1/2 turns later it was jammed solid and would not budge. 😯

After pacing up and down/cursing for a few mins I knew the only way was to cut the cup out of the frame (something I have done before)

Here goes,

You need a good standard hack saw blade and preferably a handle to hold it in (or tape round the end to grip) and start cutting. The aim is to make 2 cuts to form a 1/4 segment and working your way through (be patient) and when your almost through take gentle slower cuts and you can hear the difference between the cup and when the blade just touches the frame threads and STOP!!! ❗

Once done then all you need is to break out the 1/4 piece and then the rest will come out quite easily. 8)

I`ve actually done this 3 times over my 26 years of “fettling with bikes” one was with a Ti frame as well….. 😯

Just wish I ad some pics to show!

BB tool in a vice and turn the frame.

Got a bench vice or access to one Ton?
Put the BB tool in the vice and use the frame as a lever. Gives you a lot of triangulated leverage!

I’d try plus gas overnight, then a bit of heat. See if you can use the BB tool with a bar over it and rock it back and forth rather than swing off it to loosen it.

Ton – I work in leeds and I can do this for you. I renovate old MTB frames and have never failed to get one out yet.

I don’t mind taking it and sorting it for you for nowt.

DON’T USE HEAT. It isn’t that effective unless you really heat it up a lot and by that time your paint is wrecked.

robdob………that would be bloody ace mate. beer tokens will be given mate.

email me please, in my profile.

Update for anyone interested

I never use heat or cut a BB out, just use sound engineering and physics…

The causalty:

Signs of rust – I’m guessing used grease instead of copperslip and with the Yorkshire roads water has got in and washed the grease away.

Ive got a really nice Park BB tool and a Pedros adjustable bolt which bolts the tool onto the BB so it won’t slip.

I tried leverage with a locking spanner on the tool and an extension like Ton did but it didn’t work even after soaking the BB in penetrating fluid and trying some freezing spray too.

So off down to Aspley Wharf Marina in hudds to see John who owns the place and is a good friend. He’s a professional marine engineer and used to be head engineer on very big ships and luxury boats.

And he has a big vice.

Clamped the BB tool and frame into the vice

Soaked it in some better penetrating stuff which he had which foamed up into the shell. Good stuff.

Tried leverage but it still didn’t work so we broke out the dead blow hammer and some wood to turn the frame in a quick shock to break the rust seal. A few blows later and CRACK the rust seal is broken.

Out it comes and I take the BB completely out using his lovely Facom spanners :drool:

Lots of gunk in there, stained by rust with a weird hard ring of crud which came out too.

Other side to compare

Gave Ton the good news, and set about sorting the rest of the frame out.

Good work!

🙂

Just goes to prove that Angels really do have beards 🙂

Nice fish!
See, all it needed was a whack . . . (or 2). 😉

Excellent work.
Now can you come and extract my son from his pit (may well be weird crud rings involved 😐 )

Nice work, I was wondering what the outcome of this was.

Just out of interest do you know what releasing fluid he used? I normally use Plus Gas but am interested to hear if there’s anything better on the market.

A disappointingly small dead blow mallet there. But then it’s not the size…..

This was a good read, I have exactly the same problem.

I’m struggling to find plus gas locally, any other suggestions?

Thanks for the update.I also wondered how it would work out,good to see it worked out.I’m also wondering what penetrating oil you used?

A disappointingly small dead blow mallet there. But then it’s not the size…..

Weirdly enough you can sometimes do less damage with a big one than a small one…

Something to do with a heavy weight moving relatively slowly rather than a light one moving fast… Same impact but less “shock”… Or something 😕 😕 😕

Sandwich – Member
A disappointingly small dead blow mallet there. But then it’s not the size…..

That was all that needed in the end. Because it was hitting the end of a lever effectively then it didn’t need as much of a blow to crack the rust bond. Might have needed a bigger one nearer the BB.

I now have a strange desire to own a frame with a rusted in BB, just so I can have a go at this.

Another friend of mine supplies stuff to garages and it was him that got the penetrating fluid. I will ask him what it was cos it wasn’t one I’d seen before.

The main rule with this sort of thing is patience and decent tools. If something doesn’t work don’t go bashing on it angrily, you’re only going to break/strip something. Walk away, come back the next day and try something else. Eventually you’ll figure it out.

My record of never using heat or cutting a BB out is intact!

This cup and cone BB fixed cup was stuck in my 1992 GT Tequesta. Original BB been in for 22 years and had been sitting outside a Cash Converters in the rain for weeks.

You used a 32mm headset spanner to remove it but the contact area of the spanner was tiny.

So I got some threaded bar and loads of repAir washers of various sizes to clamp the tool onto the cup.

After soaking in penetrating fluid and using some careful leverage the CRACK came and then it was slowly wound out. Success!

Park do a cup for their bb tool that fits on those old loose bearing bb cups, iirc. Probably not a tool you’d need very often though.