Getting bottom bracket off old Raleighs!

does anyone know a secret method of getting these off or do i need a special tool? much appreciated for info ....

i did a conversion recently with a cup and cone BB that just would not come out. everything we tried failed.

eventially we took a blowtorch to the bastard. the BB came out and it turns out at some point a previous owner had locktited it in. no wonder we couldnt get it out.

the paint on the frame was ruined though, so i only recommend it if you plan to respray or just dont care how it looks.

i heard if you spray HTFU it really helps

hammer/screwdriver=bodge ;]

cheers for the help i think im gona try brixton cycles or just smash the bastard off with my gun show!!! cheers

You know about the basics right?

You need an oval (parabola?) BB tool - Park does one for about £20 - for the fixed cup. Then a pin wrench for the other side. The Park BB tool has one included but it's fixed in spacing between the pins. So the Park SPA4 (or is it 3 or 2 - the green one) is a variable pin wrench if you need that. You can borrow my versions of both of these if you can make it to Homerton?

For me if these tools fail then the next stages are:

1 Try to grab fixed cup with a normal wrench or the loose side with pliers in the holes;
2 Make this tool which Sheldon shows us: http://sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/bbcups.html I've had success on one loose cup with this one. It's fun to do too;
3 Brute force: so it seems heat might work (from Melon above). My friend managed to combine angle grinding and a diamond bit dremel to get a loose cup out the other day. Not sure if the threads will still work.

If you mash the threads when in the removal there's another thread on this site showing where you can get the BB shell rethreaded for about £40 or try fitting the threadless BB - again, this is talked about somewhere else on the site and I've found a few on sale online for around £14.50.

If you give up then I'll buy the frame off you for £20! Assuming we've got hori dropouts...

Cheers.

By the way I'm not usually this giving - but I'm in the kiddies pen.

Matt

nice info templeton, ill have a look at it 2nite and let u know, ive got a sneaky suspision its not a raleigh due to the ever so slightly dodgy paint job and stickers i need to have a good old goosy gander at it 2nite! cheers

All good stuff from templeton. I'd add to the Sheldon Brown method: heat (even a hair dryer will help), copious amounts of WD40, and most importantly, lots of leverage. Once the bolt is as tight as you can get it with spanners, a bench clamp on the bolt will let you pull on the whole frame.

And don't forget the direction of the threads.

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=93

I'm having similar issues with my build, the adjustable side won't budge. The fixed side undid with a plumbers wrench. I went so far as trying to saw the thing off, which didn't get very far! I've given up, and the mutilated thing is sitting tight. It's been there thirty years so far, so if it works loose, all well and good, and if it doesn't, never mind, seems to work ok. If I get desperate, and brute force it out, bikefix will apparently recut threads. Alternatively, sjs do threadless bottom brackets, but it seems people have problems keeping them tight.

Good luck!

mftempleton - you said you've managed the Sheldon Brown method witht the spacers etc.

I've tried this with no sucess - do you have any extra tips/hints?

dunno if this is relevant but I struggled with an old Raleigh a while back, then I resorted to an old trick whereby counter-intuitively if you actually try to tighten the the thing you are loosening it helps make it easier to undo... anyway in this case it worked a treat because to my amazement it turned out that although it was an English thread BB, the threads were on opposite sides to usual, so the RH side undid the normal way, the LH side had the LH thread and so undid clockwise - duh! Maybe someone had a mingin hangover at the factory that day...

i have the same problem with an old carlton i have just stripped..... how did you get it off nippon?

I had the same issue to, it was done up FT!