Unbelievably tight bottom bracket

Java Man wrote:
In article , says...

"Vee" wrote:

Vise! Come on guys, it's a vise, not a vice.


That depends on how, and how often, you use it. ;-)

And what for ;-)

Rather than WD-40, get a better penetrating oil. I use Liquid Wrench,
but I'm sure there are better ones out there.

Since you have the bike on its side and one cup out, pour some down
through that side as well. Occasionally, whack the BB axle with a heavy
mallet.

I have a feeling a shop will do this a while, then put it in a vice and
get a couple of guys to turn it...

(Last resort, and hopefully with your permission, they'll take a profane
torch and get it all really hot. That sometimes gets it loose.)

Zog The Undeniable wrote:
B Paton wrote:

(I assume this is a sealed unit by the sounds of it rather than a cup and
cone style.)

It sounds like a steel cup, otherwise I think the splines would have been
damaged earlier in the adventure. If it were me I would back up to
this step
and use proper penetrating oil. I would apply lots and let it sit
overnight.
Using a torch risks damaging the paint, but I would also apply some
heat to
the cup.

(If the cup is aluminium, then neither of these techniques will likely
work
and I think you would use techniques used in loosening stuck seat posts).

Take care not to strip the cup splines. I recently had a bike brought in
where the cup splines had been stripped on both sides (aluminium alloy
on Rh
side). It was a royal pain to remove the axle, then cut through the steel
tube that serves as the shell for the BB unit. It's really hard
steel, it
takes hours, and it risks damage to the BB shell on the frame.


That's the current plan - the frame is on its side with the threads
marinating in WD40. If it doesn't shift tomorrow morning I'll take it
over to my parents' house, where my father has a proper vice (Carl Fogel
will now come up with an amusing pun based on the fact that British
English uses the same spelling for vice, whether of the police squad or
bench tool variety).

The splines in the BB cup are still OK - yes, it's a Shimano-pattern
sealed unit. The tool gave up first. The cups are steel, and the frame
is also steel, so it's probably good old fashioned rust that I'm dealing
with. The LH cup showed no signs of threadlock, anyway.

The reason for removing the BB, as well as replacing it with an ISO
taper unit, was to drill and tap the shell for a drain plug so this
doesn't happen again...

Dan Daniel wrote:

Had this problem recently. The BB was shot so I didn't need to worry
about re-using it.

I am not certain what part of my destruction process finally freed up
the cup, but I took a cold chisel to the bearing surrounding the axle
and a Dremel cut-off wheel to the same area, hopping to break the
unit. In a moment of exhaustion, I decided to give the removal tool a
quick try, and the whole thing came out very easily.

I figure that the pounding and grinding vibrated things enough to
loosen the corrosion. So that'd be my suggestion- just support the
frame in ways that won't cause any bending and pound on the BB for a
bit.

The LBS got it out in 5 minutes, apparently. 20UKP for removing it,
tapping and facing the shell - ouch.