On Monday, October 12, 2015 at 5:06:19 AM UTC-4, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
I was finally able to get the bottom bracket off of a friend's steel frame English threads bottom bracket bike. Whew what a job! The fixed cup cup was cross-threaded. He wants to put in a standard square-taper spindle cartridge bottom bracket. The problem is since the fixed cup was cross-threaded I can't get the new cartridge to thread in properly. Does a decent bicycle shop have a way to correct the cross-threaded threads in the bottom bracket shell? If so what's a ballpark price for doing it?

Thanks and cheers

I used an old pair of bottom bracket cups to make a tool to cleanup the threads. I cut some grooves into a fixed cup and made a spacer to fit inside the fixed cup and adjustable cup. I screwed the adjustable cup inmost of the way and then started the fixed cup supported by the internal spacer as I threaded the fixed cup in I backed out the adjustable cup which with the spacer kept the fixed cup square to the bottom bracket shell. Surprisingly, by working very slowly on it, it worked and I was able to cleanup the cross threading and then install a sealed cartridge bottom bracket. Everything tightened up okay. i guess my next step will be to strip the frame and repaint it. i also need to either get a riser quill stem, a quill to threadless stem adapter and stem, or an adjustable stem to get the bars uo to where I most prefer them. A shakedown ride today shows that all's well except I'd prefer a bit longer reach on my stem.

Cheers