I'm taking a moment to reflect on my Viscount journey as it was roughly about this time last year, when I started to research more about Viscounts, reading quite a bit on the CTC Viscount bicycles thread. I knew the bottom bracket needed urgent attention, even more so after my friend was complaining about the wobble when she rode the bike for a bit. When thinking back I can still see me sitting in the garden, hammering the spindle and bearings out, then, upstairs in my living room, without any bike tools, hammering the new bearings and spindle back to a fully functioning bottom bracket. Doesn't matter that I broke a mallet and a hammer in the process. At that point I had been in touch with Steve, who'd guided me, and distrusted any bike shop with regards to Viscounts' unique bottom brackets. If someone had to break it, then at least it would have been me and not someone else. Good thing then, that I didn't do any damage.
I'm keeping that to now, being I'm a certified bike mechanic--makes so much more sense, doesn't it? Do you hear the sarcasm dripping from those words? Yes? Good, because that's exactly how I'd meant it. In all fairness, though, I've learned that every bike mechanic does mistakes--no matter how experienced; I'm in good company.
Today, I've put the Lambert frame into the stand, full of anticipation. The plan was to strip it, clean it, check it over, put it back together. A plan the bike didn't agree with and stubbornly refused to cooperate.
The first thing to go pear-shaped was the left-hand crank. While the drive side came off with no problems whatsoever, the left thread stripped and the crank extractor didn't grip. Taken the relatively fresh and large amount of grease on the bolts (what for I have no idea, to be honest), my bet is on someone wanting to fix the shot bottom bracket and quickly giving up due to not knowing what to do with it. That person must have already stripped some of the thread leaving me only little to work with.
Because I'm such a genius, I had the grandiose idea to just pull the spindle through and push the crank off on the other side. What else do I have this great tool--specially made for me--for? tThe idea was going in the right direction, the execution, however, not so. The cracking sounds was frightening, and I stopped immediately. The crank arm on the none-drive side had pushed the bearing a tiny bit inside. Okay, that wasn't working like I'd envisioned it. A brief moment of thinking and I decided to pull the spindle from the other side. Again, inventive, yet not recommended. As I've now got a crank arm with a damaged thread and some dents from the tool, which was now also bent. A sudden rush of panic spread through me; this tool is a precision tool and took ages to be made, if I'd broken it, it would've been a disaster. Needless to say that the spindle didn't move one bit and was still in the frame, plus both bearings. Hmmm.
I really needed a cuppa and a new solution.
To make matters worse, the stem bolt is royally seized up. Nothing that normally concerns me, because I've never been defeated by a seized stem, but that bugger just didn't move. Not one bit; instead the imperial-sized Allen key, made out of cheese, twisted, rendering it useless. I'd sprayed rust dissolver (similar to Plus Gas) onto and into it from all possible angles--still nothing. Guess I'll have to buy a 'proper' one and then give it another go. If anything else fails, it'll get the tool-in-vice treatment. On the other hand, it's only the bearings that need replacing, so may just do that, tighten the headset and may not need to get the stem out for now.
Anyway, back to the bottom bracket: with the tool still bent, and the left hand crank attached, I did the one thing I knew would work: screwed in the bolt into the drive side and hammered it out.
After that I had an idea of how to bend the tool back and succeeded, being finally able to push the bearing and crank off the spindle, which is a tad corroded, but nothing serious. It can easily be cleaned, polished and re-fitted. Not too bad after being 40 years in use, isn't it?
Luckily, the bearings are easy to get (6003 2RS) and since yesterday night, I also know how to fit the bottom bracket using the tool. Easy, really.
Unfortunately, the remaining bearing didn't come out in one piece as I'd expected. In the absence of a collet, I normally use a long bolt with a slightly rounded head and tap the bearing out--gently! This time, though, the bearing fell apart--did I mention it was completely shot?--with bist and pieces flying everywhere; everything but the outer race, which is still sitting in the frame. This will need some careful approach as any damage to the frame could potentially mean that the new bearings might not fit snugly anymore.
A tad frustrated, I decided to give it a rest for the day and finish the job at a later point. You know me, I'm not one to give up, so this frame will be rolling on London's streets very soon. Watch this space.
And just a side note for you: I usually wear gloves and my hands don't always look as leathery. For some reason, I started on the bike without gloves getting dirty pretty quickly.
I'm keeping that to now, being I'm a certified bike mechanic--makes so much more sense, doesn't it? Do you hear the sarcasm dripping from those words? Yes? Good, because that's exactly how I'd meant it. In all fairness, though, I've learned that every bike mechanic does mistakes--no matter how experienced; I'm in good company.
Today, I've put the Lambert frame into the stand, full of anticipation. The plan was to strip it, clean it, check it over, put it back together. A plan the bike didn't agree with and stubbornly refused to cooperate.
The first thing to go pear-shaped was the left-hand crank. While the drive side came off with no problems whatsoever, the left thread stripped and the crank extractor didn't grip. Taken the relatively fresh and large amount of grease on the bolts (what for I have no idea, to be honest), my bet is on someone wanting to fix the shot bottom bracket and quickly giving up due to not knowing what to do with it. That person must have already stripped some of the thread leaving me only little to work with.
 |
| Bent puller tool |
I really needed a cuppa and a new solution.
To make matters worse, the stem bolt is royally seized up. Nothing that normally concerns me, because I've never been defeated by a seized stem, but that bugger just didn't move. Not one bit; instead the imperial-sized Allen key, made out of cheese, twisted, rendering it useless. I'd sprayed rust dissolver (similar to Plus Gas) onto and into it from all possible angles--still nothing. Guess I'll have to buy a 'proper' one and then give it another go. If anything else fails, it'll get the tool-in-vice treatment. On the other hand, it's only the bearings that need replacing, so may just do that, tighten the headset and may not need to get the stem out for now.
Anyway, back to the bottom bracket: with the tool still bent, and the left hand crank attached, I did the one thing I knew would work: screwed in the bolt into the drive side and hammered it out.
After that I had an idea of how to bend the tool back and succeeded, being finally able to push the bearing and crank off the spindle, which is a tad corroded, but nothing serious. It can easily be cleaned, polished and re-fitted. Not too bad after being 40 years in use, isn't it?
 |
| Slightly corroded spindle |
 |
| Rather shot bearing. |
A tad frustrated, I decided to give it a rest for the day and finish the job at a later point. You know me, I'm not one to give up, so this frame will be rolling on London's streets very soon. Watch this space.
And just a side note for you: I usually wear gloves and my hands don't always look as leathery. For some reason, I started on the bike without gloves getting dirty pretty quickly.
No comments:
Post a Comment