Bottom Bracket out of alignment?

Hey guys, having grown tired of regreasing my old loose bearing bottom bracket I decided to fit a sealed unit one... only to find it seems not to work. The fixed cup (driveside) threads in fine, but if you look into the shell from the non-driveside before installing the other cup, you can see that the axle is not in the centre of the shell. As such, the remaining space around the bottom bracket where the second cup should go is uneven, being much narrower on one side. This ends with me being unable to install the second cup. Any idea how to resolve this? I've heard the bb shell could be faced, but I am not really sure what this entails? Cheers!

Sounds like you do need it facing. They use a special tool to shave of a little metal / paint / material to make the face flat. This way the BB sits straight.

Alternatively, I guess your BB could be cross threaded. Does it go in straight and then become wonky when tightening or is it wonky from the first few threads?

it is wonky straight away, just checked. I guess I'll need to get it faced then, is that something most shops will do or do I need to find a frame builder?

Most shops will have the tool I would have thought.

Cheers butters, called up a shop and they're doing it for me this week! Thanks a bunch!

Might be worth asking them to chase the threads out too. They should be able to advise what needs doing when they can take a look at the frame.

yeah they said they may chase the threads when we spoke on the phone. He quoted me £12, seems reasonable considering at the moment my frame is unusable!

They will likely chase the threads to get the tool in to face the shell as it's the same tool with different attachments and you often need to chase the threads to get the tool in smoothly for the facing.

It does sound suspiciously like something might be cross threaded though from the way you describe it. Hope not as that's not always as easy as chasing the threads.