STUCK - Burley Tandem Bottom Bracket
 

Last week we picked up a nagging noise in the drive train. We were out of town on spring break and, though the bike shop couldn't fix it, they did isolate the noise as coming from the stoker's bottom bracket.

Burley used a proprietary bottom bracket setup with two sealed bearing held in place with snap rings. Tandems East had the bearing and snap rings to replace. The rings came out with no problem. But the bearings and spindle won't move.

I've been soaking it with PB Blaster (that's the liquid you see in the picture) and using a dead blow hammer and pvc pipe to hit the bearing rather than the end of the spindle.

I'm actually considering building a puller that would tap into the spindle and press against the frame but that seems like overkill.

Am I missing something here? Any ideas on what to do next?



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Double check with Mel at Tandems East, as he's certainly done this many times and talked clients or bike shop techs through the process for 20 years now.

It can be a brute force kind of thing as best as I recall. Given the bearings are being replaced, you can usually get the process started by using the axle to drive out one of the bearings, and then go back and get the other one with a drift. You just need to protect the axle-end from being damaged by using a plastic mallet or a block of wood and your dead blow hammer. Yeah, it ruins the bearing, but you're replacing those anyway.

If you'd like to read up on what folks have done in the past and what guidance they received from Burley, et al, these two archived postings from Hobbes cover the basics.

http://search.bikelist.org/getmsg.as....9912.0123.eml
http://search.bikelist.org/getmsg.as...10009.0311.eml

Thanks, TG.

The bearing is coated with red lock tight. What you do is get a socket a bit smaller than the bottom bracket, put it on the bearing and hit the socket. It pops out and you coat the new one with lock tight and drive it in the same way. The snap rings just locate the ends, they don't actually hold the bearings in place. Got to hit the socket pretty hard too. Have fun.

One other thing. The assembly that you are driving out consists of the 2 bearings and the axle, with a sleeve in the middle. It comes out as one piece and the new assembly has new bearings and a new axle,so you aren't reusing anything. Bang away.

I only have the two bearings, not a new spindle/axle.

Stuck bottom bracket.
 

I realise I am reviving a zombie thread here but as it was about the only place I could find any information on Burley bottom brackets I thought it might be helpful to the next person!

We recently purchased a Burley duet S/S and it's in a pretty sad state so it's being sent for shot blasting and powder coating, had to get all the components off first!

I removed the snap rings and as suggested above had at it with a dead blow mallet, made astonishingly little progress and got a very tired arm.

I eventually had a brain wave, popped a spare crank bolt in the axle and ran my sds drill with a masonry bit that fit inside the 8mm socket on the crank bolt (hammer only mode) the bearings and spindle came out in seconds, didn't even damage the drill bit!

Just a note, it doesn't come out as one assembly it's bearings that are push fit onto a central solid axle with a spacer in the middle.

I have a Burley Bongo. I have replaced the bearings and spindle up front with Phil Wood parts and kept the rear one in good running order by removing the outer seals and working grease into them. I will be striping it down and sending it out for minor frame repair and some hydraulic cable guides. I use hydraulic rim brakes on it.

I haven't extracted the spindle or bearings from the eccentric just removed the whole unit, I can't see any clips holding the bearings in, is it entirely push fit?

How have you gone about getting the spindles and bearings back into place, did you use any locking compound?

Thanks

Tan

The front spindle and bearings are a press fit into the eccentric. I pulled the eccentric then used an arbor press at a friends shop to remove the original spindle that I had bent by standing on the pedals going up a grade. I haven't yet removed the rear unit but it has e clips or snap rings and epoxy to help hold it in. from what has been discussed the spindle + bearings and sleeve in the middle come out together than an arbor press could be used for disassembly and reassembly.

Here is a similar tool to the on I used . You would need to confirm that the tool had enough range.