Cinnabarwood

Wondering if anyone can tell me before I take it apart. Presently (assembled in original ride-able condition I mean) the press fitting on the non-drive side overlaps the edge of the BB shell so I cannot get an exact measurement. If someone can tip me off I will order the American-to-Euro BB converter. Thanks in advance. -Louise in California.

Andrew R Stewart 

First I doubt that their drive side bearing is pressed in the shell for that bike/era. Second some Crescents have used non English threading so do your homework before trying to loosen yours (pick the proper directing to unthread). Third- It is not hard to measure a shell width on an assembled bike. Only a tad of more effort than a bare frame needs. Last- I never heard of an adaptor that fitted an Euro bb (whatever that means., there's at least 4 BB standards that were in use in Europe at that time) that allowed the Ashtabula type one piece crank to fit.

All this is pretty straight forward to someone who has spent time working on bikes of this era. Perhaps a LBS with a motivated old guy? Andy (that old guy)

dedhed

Don't be shocked if a 70's Crescent has a Thompson/Thun bottom bracket.

​​​​​​https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...tage-bike.html

bboy314

Sounds like you currently have a 1-piece bottom bracket and are hoping to convert to a threaded 3-piece, such as a square taper? If so, you should be able to measure the shell even with cups pressed into it.

3alarmer 

.
...DBS in Norway used Fauber cranks for quite a while on their three speeds. But they are another country over in Scandinavia.
If you can get together some decent photos, and post them in an album, maybe you can get some better answers here.

Fauber is not very amenable to modification by replacement, if that's what it is. There are pictures of one in the thread linked by dedhed .

Cinnabarwood

Thanks everyone for your great help, you've saved me much time and trouble. Glad I reached out before wrenching. I now know that it has a Fauber BB. The goal was lower gears and more crank & pedal options. Oh, well. So my next plan is to look at the local co-op for a smaller (than 46 teeth) chainring and might pick up a bigger (than 19 teeth) Sturmey Archer (3 speed-- well Nexus actually but the cog is the same, no?--) cog too. Does that sound reasonable?
All so I can ride it in my hilly home town and not just on the Monterey Bay bike path and Westcliff Drive (Santa Cruz). Although it is such an inexplicably sweet ride already and those routes are so stunning I could also just go ride as-is and not tinker...Hmmm... Go ride, or go tinker?

ign1te

There is a special adapater that enables one to modernize a fauber bb. It comes in two versions, threaded or pressed.

https://www.velobia.fi/fauber-adapter

Back in the day, a special square axle was also made for the fauber. I dont know of any place that sell them but you can get them from a donor bike.

3alarmer 

.
...FWIW, there is a long series of pictures ,of a DBS 3 speed where I disassembled the Fauber crank so I could repaint the thing. It's not an impossible job, but it does take some patience. An easier approach, that would give you lower gearing in all three speeds, would be to fit the biggest cog on your 3speed hub that you can find on the internet. They are not hugely expensive, and are usually held on by a snap ring, so easy to remove and replace.

Edit: I see you are already considering this larger cog thing. I forget what the biggest ones I've seen are, but I think maybe 22-23 teeth ? But yes, all those triple tabbed rear cogs are basically interchangeable.

veganbikes

This is all super helpful if only this thread happened a few months ago. I had to deal with a Fabber set up and didn't realize what it was till later after doing a lot of leg work trying to reach out to various shops in Sweden and Norway and such. It is odd that a U.S. B.B. went overseas well after it came out. It is odd they didn't just use Ashtabula and went with Fauber. That adapter is super neat it will be a good thing to keep in mind in case we see others.

3alarmer 

...in my limited experience with them, Fauber crank and BB setups are much more bombproof, better sealed against the elements, and a little lighter than Ashtabula. The bearing race cups are threaded into the BB shell.
My mental fantasy images of all those Norwegian 3 speed bikes has them riding around town and commuting to work in all kinds of slush and snow melt. They are hard to kill, and lower maintenance (I suspect).

ign1te

Overall the performance of the ashtubla and the fauber is similar. In both cases the seal against the environment is ok. The durability of these bottom brackets come from the large ball bearing size used (1/4" or so ) and the repackability. As to their place in the modern bike world, I think they should be considered as obsolete. Mainly due to the lack of chainline adjustment.

veganbikes

Maybe! I have little experience other than trying to hunt down parts.

Cinnabarwood

A little progress on this BB, more suggestions needed.
So I got off the non-drive-side lock-ring successfully, lockring came out clockwise as everyone indicated. I put the other crank arm in the bench vise. Hubby padded it with his special leather pad so that the vise jaws wouldn't mar the crank arm, although I think the forged chromed steel is pretty bombproof. Used CRC Freeze-off-- which I had never heard of before but learned about from y'all so thanks for that. Loving hubby ground one of his pin punches to closely fit the holes in the lockring, and we hit it with Baby Doll, his miniature sledge hammer.
The dustcap, washer, cone, cage and bearings all came out fine and are in great shape.
But now how do I get that bearing cup out? I did read the bikeforums thread about the stuck swedish BB, which indicates it is threaded and that somehow a pin punch can be used, but I do not quite understand. I also have read the "Fauber Religion Guide" in English. I also viewed the pictures you sent me in a reply. Finally, i also read redbikesBluebikesOldbikesNewbikes's Fauber Bottom Bracket Service article. and I still can't quite grasp the concept. Can anyone enlighten me further?
The goal is to put a smaller chainring on. I need to take out the crank to swap chainrings, right? and remove the non-drive-side cup so that the right-angle of the 1-peice crank fits out through the BB shell? Now it appears I will need to also remove the drive-side cone from the crank arm too once it's out of the BB shell, to get to that chainring. Is this correct and if so how do I do it? Threaded? Lefty loosy? What tool?

p.s. I did ride this bike as earlier mentioned on the Monterey Bay Trail and it is sweet. Got a thumbs-up from some guy passing on what looked like a Rivendell, fancy lugs anyway, maybe he liked the kickstand. Plus passed a whole herd of solar-powered e-bikes, that was super neato.
pps I did also order the 22-tooth rear sprocket.

Anyway, about that cup and cone?
Muchas Gracias in advance
Louise

dedhed

Pyörätohtori T:MI

see KASETTIKESKIÖT

​​​​​​

Cinnabarwood

Well you got a chuckle out of me anyway.
After looking closer I found the drive holes or whatever they’re called, in the outside of the cup, and also finally understood their references (unthread clockwise) so felt a little foolish asking my earlier question. Had a go at it with the pin drive and a hatchet since apparently hubby took Baby Doll to work with him, maybe to use it on apprentices heads or something. Managed not to cut off any fingers but also didn’t budge the cup. I was using tons of that freeze-off because the cup is a pretty massive chunk of steel. Meanwhile wondering if heating the shell might work instead. Without damaging the paint? Or blowing myself up with all the goo on there? So I got your reply and the vid looked like exactly the answer… held my breath… suspenseful music and all… and…

ign1te

So the non-drive side cup unthreads clockwise. I strongly recommend using a heating torch. It can be done without heating it but your risk hurting yourself and the bike. You can try gentle heating but it will probably become tedious. Nuking it to redhot always works and it will come off fairly easily.

Cinnabarwood

Thank you for this confirmation. Will it wreck the paint?

3alarmer 

...sorry that you have decided to remove these bearing cups, because it is not easy. By far the best penetrant for loosening stuck stuff on a bike is a 50/50 mixture of acetone (from Home Depot in the paint aisles) and ATF, from the auto parts store. I use Dexron, because I have a quart of it still left over from 1982, the last time I owned a GM car. But any ATF will work. I mix it up in one of those small acetone proof plastic bottles they sell Tri Flow in, with the handy applicator straw.

When using this stuff, combined with alternating torch heat, there are few frozen fittings that can resist. You don't need to heat to the point of blistering the paint. I just dose the thread interface on the interior of the fitting, and the exterior, at the joint, with the ATF mix, then I heat with a torch. The ATF/acetone will catch fire and smoke. Then, when I have heated the assembly (in this case, I'd advise heating the cup, father than the shell, but the heat will bleed over to the shell, so be careful), apply more of the pink magic juice to the crevice on the outside where they join, and on the inside, at the end of the cup. It will sizzle, and the acetone might flare off again, but if you do this a couple of times, the combination of thermal shock and capillary action in this joint should suck some of the ATF in there at the threads. Which is, of course, where you want it to go.

The frame itself needs to be clamped in a solid workstand pretty close to the BB shell, on one of the frame tubes. If you're too far away from the BB shell where you clamp, you lose a lot of your impact force. The pin punch, of course, needs to be struck in a direction that is tangential to the circumference of the cup. In Fauberland, there is a mythical, plier-like tool, with pins in the jaws,that grabs into these little holes. Supposedly this makes the job easier, but I have some doubts. People have lied to me before, about the ease of some "simple" operation that turns out to take several hours of cursing.

I just looked at my own example, because I wasn't sure if you could change out the chain ring without removing the crank. It doesn't appear you can. I'm not 100% for certain you can simply replace this chainring with an Ashtabula ring from the co-op, because I've never replaced one on a Fauber crankset. Maybe you already looked at this, but I'd want to be sure this swap works, before you proceed farther. Sometimes there's a tendency to take stuff apart just to prove our mastery over the machine. I could tell you some stories of how I've done this and come to an unhappy conclusion. But everyone has a story or two like that.

Cinnabarwood

Wow, what great detailed info! Explains what was going on in the video too.
Because of the difficulty I’m circling this project rather than immediately jumping all the way in instantly. Mostly by asking for all you-all’s help. Which has been awesome so thank you! I suspected what you said about the clamping proximity earlier while I was whaling away: dissipation of force needed solving for any progress. I think now, based on everything, that I’ll just re-grease and reassemble the BB as-is and ride it with its big chainring down in the flatlands which is a better place for its coaster brake anyway. I did get pedal converters (I always use extenders anyway and these adapt for my favorite pedals) and also got the larger rear cog, and can install my new tire at the same time, and be happy with the BB service and those few small customizations, and be back in the saddle by tomorrow afternoon on this uber-long- wheelbase upright townie, 3-speed-coaster-for-grownups comfort wagon.
With gratitude,
louise
p.s. Bike needs one more thing: a name…?

ign1te

The name of the bike shall be "F for Fauber".