Potentially facing an early retirement (bottom bracket issues)

So last night I rode to a friends house, only to realise that once again part of my bottom bracket had come loose. Following a nervous ride home, I decided - once again - to tighten everything up. I fear that in my zeal, I have now stripped the thread on my bottom bracket shell.

It all started a few weeks ago when I noticed more than the usual give (from the chain) in my drivetrain. Somehow I had failed to notice a missing chainring bolt. I stupidly rode on it for a good few weeks without attending to the issue and unsurprisingly things got worse. Now, in addition to a loose headset and loose cones on my rear hub (which will get sorted when I find some money), I have a chainring that sits very funnily on my crank arm causing a whole host of tight and loose spots in my chainline and a bottom bracket that works it's way loose every few days. I have tried the Sheldon thing for the chainring, but I'm pretty sure I made it worse...

Is there anything that can be done short of replacing damn near everything but the wheels? If the BB shell thread has stripped, it doesn't seem to be too bad - it's still reasonably tight in there but it tightens up to a certain point before suddenly loosening again. I guess I will find out just how bad it is next time I take the bike out...It might be worth pointing out that everything is pretty dirty down there - I tried to give it a good clean when I first fitted the BB almost a year ago (and it has been more or less fine since then) but it was pretty grim. Anyone had similar experiences or advice?

Sounds like somethings definitely stripped - hopefully it's the BB and not the threads in the frame.

Seems like the best thing to do, is to take it apart and have a look. Take out the BB, clean everything, and see if you can what's stripped. Hard to give advice when your not sure what the problem is...

You may have to use a bb for fucked threads velo orange do one.The threads are on the shell of the bb and it tightens on these.I have tried cheap ones but they are crap and need loads of loctIte

The (I assume alloy) threads of the BB would fuck up (*technical term) before the (again, I assume) the steel BB shell.

If you have used the cranks without a crankbolt then you've also most likely fuckered the cranks...

Pics?

^ True, but the frame could've had fucked threads before he put the BB in...

Yeah the frame is steel so I thought it seemed strange that the shell threads would strip and not the BB, but I had a look at the part of the BB I was screwing in and it appeared to be fine.

If the cranks were borked (I can't think what I could have done other than misshapen the 'square bit' - not sure if there's a technical word) is it possible that could be causing the BB to come loose? Other than putting more stress on the BB when I skid, I can't see how it would...

@forms - that's possible, but it seems strange since I've been riding it for a good 9 months without any problems.

Probably a bit late i know, but see if you can find a MAVIC BB they don't use the frames bb threads...