Broken bottom bracket spindle!

Last week I suffered a broken bottom bracket spindle on my Viscount Pro bike, which dates from about 1978.  Like some other Lambert and Viscount components, the spindle has had a bad press, but I reckon around 33 years is not a bad service life for such a highly stressed part.  The break was not at the circlip grooves, which have been suggested as bad features of the design by acting as stress concentrators, but right against the left hand (non-drive side) crank - possibly where the taper starts.  I think the break may have begun a couple of weeks ago - there had been some creaking from the crank.  Before that the crank had worked loose a couple of times - so perhaps the unusual stresses had initiated the crack that began the break.

Not having a spare Viscount spindle handy, I took one from another of my bikes - a Viscount Aerospace Sport, also dating from the late 1970s.  The bottom bracket bearings on the Sport were almost seized and needed replacing anyway.  
Unfortunately, unlike when I replaced the bearings in the Pro a few blogs ago, the replacement spindle was very difficult to remove from the donor bike.  I had to bash it hard with a big hammer and consequently I had to file the tapers back into shape afterwards.  It proved to be quite rusty in the middle part.  Eventually I got the new spindle into place on the Pro (the earlier blog has more details of the process and photos).  I hope the bad treatment with the hammer has not started any micro cracks that will limit the life of the replacement.
In the blog about bottom bracket bearings (4 February 2011) I was a bit vague about the length of the spindle.  In fact the Viscount bottom bracket shell is the British standard 68mm, so there is 68mm between the circlip grooves.  On the drive side there is 29mm to the end of the spindle, on the left it is 24mm, making 121mm total length.  The asymmetry is to do with getting the right chain line, but it is a bit of a mystery why it was done that way and replacement with non-Viscount symmetrical 124 or 125mm spindles seems to work as well as, if not better than the original.
There has been a long gap in these blogs but I hope to get going again.  Thanks for the interesting comments.  I will be answering questions raised and discussing other Viscount & Lambert issues.  Subjects that have occurred to me include: model names and specifications; decals (transfers) and stickers; brakes; saddles; other unique parts; and frame numbering.  Perhaps we could start a register of Lambert & Viscount bikes?

Replacing Viscount bottom bracket bearings

Over last weekend I dismantled the bottom bracket on my 1978 Viscount Aerospace bike and replaced the bearings.  This turned out to be quite straightforward - surprising considering all that has been written about these components, but it is fair to say that, according to a friend with more experience of Viscount bottom brackets, I was lucky with this one.  It wasn’t too stuck and not rusty.

First I took off the cranks.  The spindle wobbled in one of the bearings, showing that replacement was overdue.  It was then necessary to remove the circlips, in theory there to stop the spindle sliding through the bearings but probably not doing anything.  A proper pair of circlip pliers helps, but you can improvise with little screwdrivers or some such.  

To remove the spindle I sized up various tools but picked up a hefty hammer.  I tried putting a bit of wood between the hammer and the end of the spindle, but that didn’t work so I just bashed away.  Should anyone be following this, put the crank screw in the spindle and hit that.  It saves distorting the end of the spindle. However, it might damage the screw, although I was lucky.  I had to file the spindle back into shape.  It slid quite easily out of the bearings although one of them fell apart.  Getting the bearings out required a narrow cold chisel (a six-inch nail might have worked) and the hammer.  There are ‘pullers’ for extracting bearings.  I have one, but the hammer method is fine when the bearings are shot anyway.  The pictures show the shell and the spindle together with an old bearing and a new one (the new one on the left) and the circlips.

I cleaned up the spindle and the seats for the bearings carefully.  I was advised to ‘polish’ the spindle (thanks Steve) and I did that.  I put one bearing on to the spindle, using an old adjustable spanner to convey the taps of my hammer to the inner ring of the bearing.  I thought whether I should put Loctite or anti-seize compound on the spindle and bearing housings and went for the anti-seize, thinking that nothing was likely to move once assembled.  Then I just needed to tap the bearings in, opening up the adjustable spanner to strike their outer rings until they were flush with the shell.  Here’s a picture of this.

After adjusting the position of the spindle and fitting the circlips, the job was done.  The cranks went on nice and square and the result is great - sm-o-o-o-th.

If your bb spindle is damaged or lost there are replacements around.  The length is 122mm or 123mm, depending on who you read.  To my shame, I forgot to measure mine.  Anything from 120 - 123mm would probably work as well.  Phil Wood at one time made a stainless steel spindle that would be bomb-proof.  This one on eBay would probably be ok.  YST made a similar spindle.  There are other options for replacing Viscount bottom brackets, which I will describe another day.

The bearings are numbered ‘6003’, measuring 35mm outside diameter x 17mm inside diameter x 10mm thick.  The ‘6’ gives the type of bearing (single row deep groove) and shows it is a metric size.  The first zero is the series, which indicates the thickness and outside diameter.  The ‘03’ at the end shows that the bore is 17mm.  I found this out from the Gizmology site.  If you are buying bearings for your Viscount or Lambert, you will want 6003-2RS ones.  The 2RS means that both sides have rubbers seals to keep out dirt and grit.

Bottom brackets

On Friday morning I noticed that the bottom bracket spindle on my 1978 Viscount Aerospace Pro seemed to be running loose in its bearings.  This caused the chain wheel to wobble and my gear changes to be a bit hit-or-miss.  It also prompts me to talk about the bottom brackets used in Lambert and Viscount bikes.

[Note for people who do not speak ‘bike’:  The bottom bracket is the bit at the bottom (!)  where the pedals go round and round.   The spindle (or bottom bracket spindle) is the bit that is attached to the cranks and the chain wheel.   (It is a spindle, rather than an axle, because it rotates.  Strictly speaking axles don’t turn.)  The bearings are what the spindle turns in.  Traditionally, the bearings were made up of separate bearing ‘cups’ and loose balls.   Together the spindle and bearings make up the ‘bottom bracket’.  The part of the frame in which the bottom bracket fits is the bottom bracket shell.  Nowadays, most bottom brackets are sealed units.]

Lambert was an early adopter of ‘sealed’ bearing units - in fact industry standard ball bearings.  These push fit into the bottom bracket shell and the spindle fits into the bearings.  Circlips were fitted to the spindle to stop any tendency to move from side-to-side.  A similar arrangement was used on Klein bikes.  Here are some photographs and text about changing Klein BBs, which might be of use if anyone is changing a Lambert or Viscount one.

Certain problems arose with the Lambert BBs.  Early spindles and crank sets had parallel-sided square ends, unlike the square tapers then usual for cotterless crank sets.  This was asking for trouble and the cranks were inclined to work loose as the holes in them became enlarged.  Later versions had the normal tapered ends, but there was always a question mark over the accuracy of the machining and the Lambert/Viscount cranks require careful alignment.  Another problem that has been reported is early failure of the spindle, which has been attributed to stress-concentration due to the grooves for the circlips, but might be due to poor castings.  If this happened when you were cycling fast or going uphill it would certainly be frightening, possibly dangerous.  There is a good photograph of Viscount BB spindle failure here and also a way of curing the problem.

Another point is that normal cartridge bearings are not totally ‘sealed’ and they are vulnerable to road dirt getting in and wearing them out.   This is probably what has happened to mine.

Next time I’ll write about the options for your Lambert or Viscount bottom bracket, should you need to replace it, and I hope I will have sorted out mine.