Stripped bottom bracket threads -solutions please

Foreigner

Senior Retro Guru
Nice 70s frame, unfortunately came with stripped NDS and not very best drive side either. Pondering what to do, find a solution or find a fellow rider with a bit more of an experience and pass it on?

Suggestions please
 
Bottom brackets with long cups?

Had this happen on an aluminium frame, solved by using an external bb

Then there's threadless cartridge bbs

Or helicoil inserts?
 
@danson67 our resident miracle worker can cut a larger thread and insert a heli-coil to bring the BB back to BSA.
He did exactly this on frame for me.
 
Nice, Harry Quinn were popular when I was riding back in the 70's, seemed to like yellow paint which was unusual BITD.
 
Nice, Harry Quinn were popular when I was riding back in the 70's, seemed to like yellow paint which was unusual BITD.
Ha perhaps I can send it over to you together with the FW Evans, same size, so you may use the HQ forks with it :)
 
Depending on how bad it is, and how much you value the frame:

The Loctite Form-a-thread kit (#28654, or PC 3967) is a good basic thread repair system, and should be OK for a large diameter, low load fine thread like a BB shell. You spray a release compound on the male thread (cup), and a cleaner/primer on the female thread (BB shell), then mix and apply the epoxy into the thread and assemble. The release compound allows the cup to still be screwed out as normal.

I also have the 45° cutting tool for putting the appropriate chamfer on the BB faces if you're going down the threadless BB route, such as Mavic YST, or M-wave.

A quick and nasty repair (only for frames that you're not too attached to, probably) is to take a 2-3 mm straight cut across the underside of the BB shell. Close up the shell with a combination of brute force and heating, then weld or braze up the gap, then retap the threade into the fresh metal of the now slightly smaller diameter shell.

As @Peachy! mentioned above, I have repaired several BB shells by reaming out the old thread to a larger diameter, tapping out to Italian spec,

IMAG0622.jpg

then fitting a pair of thread repair helicoils.

IMAG0616.jpg

These are steel inserts that are screwed into the Italian thread, held in with Loctite 638 Retainer, with a standard BSA thread on the inside.
This is the best way to sort it out.

PM for more details if you're interested.

IMAG0620.jpg

All the best,
 
Last edited:
Back
Top