Carlton Bottom Bracket Removal.

Trying to find out what tools I need to remove my bottom bracket.

its an early 70's carlton.



the BB is round with a notch in it, was for cottered cranks.


hard to find any youtube videos of BB removal for bikes this old?

From what I can see, I think am looking at a Raleigh bottom bracket. If so 26 threads per inch, not the standard 24. Not sure when raleigh changed to 24 TPI. The left cup is r hand thread, the one on the chainwheel side is left hand, and fixed by being screwed in tight. You can easily remove the adjustable cup on the left side, just release the locking ring, gently tap it with small chisel if nothing else, or correctly with a C spanner. Inside you should find 11 1/4 inch balls each side.

You appear to have a mass produced raleigh (about 1000 complete bikes a week) made in the Carlton factory. These were sold under a variety of names , Sun, BSA etc. If it has the steel saddle pillar then it is the same tubing used to produce raleigh roadsters. All this is well documented.

I hope this helps.

do you mean put chisel in notches and then apply hammer?

if so which direction.

I dont have a c spanner

The adjustable cup is a right-hand thread, so tap the lockring off anticlockwise with a hammer and punch.

This thread has some suggestions for shifting a Raleigh-pattern fixed cup:

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=800814

Good luck!

If I strip this out I take it we are talking a new BB and I can't reuse the cottered crank?

A lot of people would see this as a good opportunity to upgrade!

If you're careful as you dismantle everything and the bearing surfaces are in reasonable shape, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to reinstall everything with new balls, fresh grease, and new cotter pins.

If you want to upgrade to a cotterless set, or you find that you need to replace the axle or cups, it can be tricky to find compatible parts these days. The Raleigh thread is the problem. There are a number of different options involving varying degrees of cost and trouble. If it comes to it, you can always have the shell retapped to BSC.