Eccentric BB... wish me luck

THATmanMANNY

Well-Known Member
I'm gonna go tinker with my cranks and Ecc BB right when I'm done posting this. I look to polish them clean and repack my BB. This is one of the more serious maintenances I have done. Wish me luck, as I will definitely need some guidance. I have pedros syn grease and park tools polylube. Which of the two if any are suitable to use for repacking BB? Here we go... :eek:
 

soundz

The Hat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I'm no expert, but I've been reading a lot about BB's lately and I'm pretty sure it said somewhere that if your cartridge bearings have plastic seals, you can usually pry them open carefully. If it's metal, it's not really possible. General consensus seems to be that they should last a long time anyway w/o lubing & u replace them when they start to go.

EDIT: I guess if you're seeing performance problems, it doesn't hurt to open them up, but if they are working fine, I would just wipe them off a bit.
 
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THATmanMANNY

Well-Known Member
ape sh!ts

Thanks fellas. I will need more than words of advice now. :rofl: I just went bananas taking it all apart. Not sure if this is a bad or good thing yet tho :hmmm: but i assume the later


I just decided I might as well strip it down, clean everything, consider some upgrades and learn a few things. Thank goodness it was a SS. :D One important thing that I did learn is that the drive side of the BB is reverse threaded... eeek. I learned the hard way after giving my BB little nicks from trying to go the lefty loosey way. Are all drive sides reverse threaded?

Questions:
1)How to get to the bearings and repack them on Truvativ GXP BB?
2) This is silly but with as much effort I try with, I can't seem to take off the little plastic tabs holding the brake line on frame. Mary owners chime in.

After all this I will learn to repack my hubs and get me that carbon fork :getsome:
 

ellbiddy

Active Member
Outboard cups use sealed cartridges so nothing to really repack, you can replace them with some of the enduro tools but it's pretty expensive check their site for a nice pictorial. The only other real option is to clean them out like Tim posted. Lots of things are reverse threaded, you took off your pedals right :p
 

soundz

The Hat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Thanks fellas. I will need more than words of advice now. :rofl: I just went bananas taking it all apart. Not sure if this is a bad or good thing yet tho :hmmm: but i assume the later

I just decided I might as well strip it down, clean everything, consider some upgrades and learn a few things. Thank goodness it was a SS. :D One important thing that I did learn is that the drive side of the BB is reverse threaded... eeek. I learned the hard way after giving my BB little nicks from trying to go the lefty loosey way. Are all drive sides reverse threaded?

Well nothing will force you to learn faster than taking everything apart and putting it back together so if that was your goal, you did good :) The drive train side is always reverse threaded except on some Italian & French bikes:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/bbsize.html#threading

If you're stuck on something I would do some research on the Park site and expertvillage.com and forums before trying to force anything.

Questions:
1)How to get to the bearings and repack them on Truvativ GXP BB?
2) This is silly but with as much effort I try with, I can't seem to take off the little plastic tabs holding the brake line on frame. Mary owners chime in.

After all this I will learn to repack my hubs and get me that carbon fork :getsome:

If you really want to get to the bearings, I would add some more things in addition Tim's link. Be very careful with the plastic seal as it can get damaged when you try to take it off/put it back on. After you clean the balls with a degreaser use isopropal alcohol to get rid of all the water. Make sure you get all the degreaser out of there .. you don't want any remnants in there when you put in the grease. You can air dry it and also use compressed air to dry it. If you use a compressor, make sure you don't spin dry bearings with no grease in there as they can damage the races.

I don't think those plastic tabs can come off w/o damaging them at least a bit. I usually take some pliers to them. Depending on what kind you have on there might be a to stick a knife in there and get it to come off more gracefully.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
Thanks fellas. I will need more than words of advice now. :rofl: I just went bananas taking it all apart. Not sure if this is a bad or good thing yet tho :hmmm: but i assume the later


I just decided I might as well strip it down, clean everything, consider some upgrades and learn a few things. Thank goodness it was a SS. :D One important thing that I did learn is that the drive side of the BB is reverse threaded... eeek. I learned the hard way after giving my BB little nicks from trying to go the lefty loosey way. Are all drive sides reverse threaded?

Questions:
1)How to get to the bearings and repack them on Truvativ GXP BB?
2) This is silly but with as much effort I try with, I can't seem to take off the little plastic tabs holding the brake line on frame. Mary owners chime in.

After all this I will learn to repack my hubs and get me that carbon fork :getsome:

Yes, reverse threads on drive side bb's, at least modern ones anyways.

I have taken apart the fsa and shimano external bb's and I assume the truvativ have a similar design. You first need to pry off the external plastic cover that is flush with the edge of the cups. Use a very thin bladed flat head screw driver (the ones for working on computers work well)

You will now see your sealed bearing. There will be a very thin plastic seal like most sealed bearings have, maybe be black or red or whatever. Take a knife (i used a razor blade/utility knife) and as carefully as you can pry the seal off. Once it is off, you can wipe the bearing down and maybe add the slightest bit of grease because packing it in there will add too much resistance.

When you reinstall the seal on the bearing, make sure it is seated correctly, it will "snap" in. Usually pushing it in and running your finger around will do the trick. When you reinstall the cranks, they should spin freely when you preload the bearings.
 

THATmanMANNY

Well-Known Member
KMC chain

Thanks for help. I will try to proceed very very carefully. I really want to get to my bearings. For a very long time I have been hearing squeaking from down there with every revolution. However, I was really surprised how clean everything was. I expected a lot of dirt, sand etc after one full summer of riding it.

The chain is KMC brand. It has some special link on it. Any familiarity with taking KMC chains off?
 
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TonyC

Active Member
The chain is KMC brand. It has some special link on it. Any familiarity with taking KMC chains off?

I have this link on my KMC chain.


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stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
The chain is KMC brand. It has some special link on it. Any familiarity with taking KMC chains off?

Take a flat blade screwdriver and pop/pry off the clip on the master link. The clip looks like an elongated 'c'. Just don't bend it too much but I have used many KMC chains over the years and never had a problem. remove the plate on the side the clip was on and you can remove the link. very easy
 

THATmanMANNY

Well-Known Member
The link I got looked like what Tony has posted. Thanks tony and kev. I really want to leave work and get home and finish the J-O-B :drooling:
 

TonyC

Active Member
The link I got looked like what Tony has posted. Thanks tony and kev. I really want to leave work and get home and finish the J-O-B :drooling:

just a tip;
upon reinstalling put the clip on the inside away from the bashguard.

-Tony
 

soundz

The Hat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
2) This is silly but with as much effort I try with, I can't seem to take off the little plastic tabs holding the brake line on frame. Mary owners chime in.

Just took a look at my bike. If your's is the same as mine .. which I'm assuming it is, they are just regular ties you can get at Home Depot in the electrical section. The only way to take them off is to cut them. But they cheap like $2ish for a pack at home depot & they also come in neon colors!
 

THATmanMANNY

Well-Known Member
Just took a look at my bike. If your's is the same as mine .. which I'm assuming it is, they are just regular ties you can get at Home Depot in the electrical section. The only way to take them off is to cut them. But they cheap like $2ish for a pack at home depot & they also come in neon colors!
No, they are not zip ties. It's like a horse shoe shaped thing that snaps onto the frame. I've kicked it off before when I fell but i don't want to kick at it just to get it off. :rolleyes: I'll try to give it more ummppph tomorrow.
 

THATmanMANNY

Well-Known Member
silky clean

IMG_0016.jpg

After a few hours I managed to clean EVERYTHING. I went the whole 9 and cleaned every nook and cranny. Every bolt, thread, etc :D I thought I'd show off the products I used to TLC my bike. I have had great success with these products but for this break down task, three words: FINISHLINE SPEED DEGREASER. Stopped by Halter's way back when and Chris recommended this to me. Just get some take out containers, spray a lil' and woosh part around. This thing is magical but it gets you woozy after long exposure but look at all my shiny jewels :D

Product Mini-Review.
L to R: -Pedro Extra Dry all purpose for all the small pivots, der, and lubing housing. -Dumonde mtb chain lube (also recommended from Halters). Used on my geared bikes. I used wax chain lube on this SSbut never again after trying to get it off this chain (as you can see no longer in the "picture") but thank goodness for the degreaser. -PT CitrusChainBright, didn't try yet. -Finishline Degreaser, you know already. -Pedro bike wash. You may think it's just soap but it's biodegradable soap:D. -Pedro bike polish, just got, not tried yet. -PT Polylube, A+++. Use on all the heavier duty parts. -Pedro SynGrease on threads of small bolts. -Locktight from Autozone for most critical bolts to stay on (i.e. cleat bolts, brake bolts, chainring bolts...)
 
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THATmanMANNY

Well-Known Member
BB & Headset Bearing


Tonight after cleaning everything thoroughly, I pry'ed off the BB cap on the drive side. Used sewing pinning needles. They are perfect for the Job. Then I went to the non-drive side and noticed there was no cap. I got a bit confused. But I remembered that yesterday the cap, which I thought was a spacer at the time, was already off when I took off my cranks and it was stuck to my cranks. It was either pulled off during dissassembly or it was always off for a while.... eeek. I guess I didn't take a good look last night and notice the bearing was already exposed.

Well I managed to get the "cap" off the BB and see the bearing but I was expecting to get to the bearing balls like the headset ones in the back of the pic. But I didn't expect to open it and see skateboard style bearings. I guess you can't get to the bearing balls then right? Pretty sure it's sealed, no? Especially if it says Truvativ Sealx...:hmmm:
 

ellbiddy

Active Member
Like Tim posted and I mentioned, they use sealed cartridges ;). You can pry off the seal and regrease them or you can use (as I mentioned before :drooling:) the enduro tool to pry out the cartridges to replace them. 99.9999% (I can't even think of one, but it might exist so not 100% :p) outboard bearing cups use sealed cartridges. The enduro site goes over step by step how to replace them with their tools (mucho $$$). The only option you have is to pop off the seal which is semi-risky since if you break it you're SOL unless you buy another cartridge to nab a seal from (which is cheap just a headache) or replace the cartridge.
 
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