A little confused. Side to side play in bottom bracket.
07-03-10, 08:04 PM
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A little confused. Side to side play in bottom bracket.
I have a BMC Team Machine that needs a bit of cleaning. So I figured I would give it a little wash this evening. I took the chain off and when I gave the crank a spin I notice to my horror that it moves from side to side. The bike has a Sram Red crank with a set of Enduro bottom bracket with ceramic bearings. I don't remember any play when I initially installed the bottom bracket and am really confused as to how I now have it. When I torque the non-drive side crank arm down it spins freely and smoothly, but it seems that the crank arm is bottoming out and there is still room for there to be play in the whole assembly. anyone else run into this? Or am I just doing something wrong? I have installed a few of these cranks and have never seen this problem before. I have had to re-torque the arms a couple of time and yada-yada, but nothing like this.
07-03-10, 08:57 PM
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The bearings seem fine, with the exception that I can pull the non-drive side out by hand. Both bearings feel smooth and when torqued down there is no wobble to the crank, but it can slide from side to side about 1/4" (maybe a little less, but still quite a bit as far as I am concerned.)
07-04-10, 05:25 AM
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make sure you have the proper bb. then you need to remove the crank, grease and retorque(48nm minimum) it until the play goes away.
07-04-10, 06:11 AM
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I just needed a little time away from the bike to figure it out. It is really simple and amazingly annoying. The non-drive side bearing should be press fit and locked into the carrier. For whatever reason this bearing can come out of the carrier under slight pressure. The axle can then slide back and forth as a unit, but still remain smooth. I am going to have to get in contact with Enduro and see what they say, but until then I am going to try and pick up a regular Sram BB and get my bike back together. This does explain the chain rub that I have been experiencing intermittently. I have been dealing with it and staying away from the outermost gears, but it was a little annoying since I did have it set up to use all the gears without even using the trim. Thanks for reading and letting me vent guys.
