thorstein

Hearing a squeak, I resolved to overhaul the bottom bracket of my '75 Raleigh DL1 Tourist. Glad I did since this is what I found:



Top: adjustable cup. Bottom: remains of ball bearing cage.
My question is: how do I put it back together? Do I try to find a new cage for the bearings, do I try to find more ball bearings to fill the gap, or something else?

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

WGB 

thorstein
Toss the old broken cage. Fill space with two more bearings (for 11 total) and waay more grease. repeat on opposite side. 11 loose bearings is the standard set per side of a BB

Ps. Some oddities out there allow only 10 bearings (if 11 they rub). In that case, stay with 10.

Ps Unsure what size bearings for headset of DH-1. Might ask before you rebuild....l.l

WGB 

Some Raleigh's have different BB bearing sizes (I've never handled one though I did get caught with a Raleigh headset (takes 5/32nd bearings) and 3/16 will not work!!
Simply pointing this out because 15/64" versus 1/4" is only 1/64th of an inch difference and DH-1's haven't been made in many years

Per Sheldon Brown:

​​​​​​By far the cheapest option is to keep the original 26 TPI Raleigh cups, and install a new spindle with the tapered square ends needed to fit cotterless cranks. Because the inside diameter of the bearing cups is slightly smaller than for other brands, not all spindles will fit, unfortunately, unless you replace the standard 1/4" bearing balls with 15/64" or 6 mm bearing balls. Bicycle shops do not usually stock these sizes, but Internet vendors carry them.

thorstein

Thanks!

Yes, more grease is needed, I just put in enough to hold the bearings in place.

I'll try to figure out the size of the bearings or are you saying they're 6mm / 15/64"?

cudak888 

Original bearings should measure out to be 1/4" and they should not be caged from factory.

Check the bearings you have with a caliper, and replace them if they're smaller than 1/4". I don't recall how many go in each cup, but just fill them on the raceway surface until you run out of space. Use nice sticky synthetic grease to hold them in the cups, and don't let the spindle dangle once you've bottomed it against the drive side; have the left-side cup ready in your other hand to spin it on.

-Kurt

thorstein

I think my reading skills were a little suspect. Seems clear he was saying 1/4" is the correct size.

Odd about the cage being in there if it's not original.

Narhay

Replace all the bearings. If they look like that they are toast. 11 on each side at 1/4".

Sierra

Also from Sheldon Brown, don't just add bearings. Replace them all.
Bearings from different batches vary slightly in size so if some are a bit larger, they are going to take all the force & wear.
Fill the cups with as many balls as will fit, then remove one.

seedsbelize 

Not odd at all. It's a much easier way to do it, and it normally functions just fine.

nlerner

Yeah, either that's all Raleigh had on hand in 1975 (it's probably cheaper to do caged bearings) or someone o'hauled it along the way and made that replacement. As long as your cups are good, it should all button up fine.

cudak888 

No worries; just wanted to make it clear if it wasn't (also for those who dig up this thread in future). Also, wasn't sure what size the ones you have now are.

My guess is that at some point in the past, a mechanic who'd never worked with non-caged bearings overhauled it - and installed a caged unit thinking it should be there. Most caged units for conventional 24tpi Japanese/US/EU bottom brackets won't fit the Raleigh BB cup and spindle correctly and I dare say that's what happened here.

The cage was probably bent out of shape by the bearings trying to squeeze in on it. Eventually, the bearings caught the cage itself, tore it apart, and spat the remains it into the BB shell.

-Kurt

thorstein

Yeah, I figured they didn't use copper bearings, but maybe that exploded cage chewed all the chrome plating off.

bikerosity57

Just get new balls and put it back together without the cage: you’ll have an extra ball or two and it will work just as well or better. Put new grease in and place enough balls to fill it completely up all the way around and then remove one ball it’ll work great.

thorstein

Sad turn of events, the spindle is pitted!


The upshot is that my LBS is retiring a DL-1 frame for wall art & they let me nab the spindle & the wheels.

Old wheels:


Notice the chrome has been worn through. It is also bent out of round so hard breaking resulted in stuttering.

New wheels!


They need to be cleaned up, but are in great shape!

The spindle is also in amazing condition, so this ’75 Tourist (with some '68 Tourist parts) will be on the road for many more years.