Charles Wahl

I bought an IRD Quad QB-55 bottom bracket, that I wish to fit with Italian cups (sold separately). I have the Italian cups, but while the non-drive cup slides right off the BB unit, the drive-side one resists removal. Anyone done this? It looks like this, but mine's the version with steel cups (the Italian ones are alumininum).



I found this "random internet" exchange, saying to thread it into a frame, and tap the spindle. I've done that, using the heavy plastic handle of a screwdriver; but no dice.
IRD QB 55 Cup Conversion

The black middle portion is metal, but I don't know how thick or what type, so I'm reluctant to tighten it in a vise. My next thought was to put the BB into the refrigerator or freezer, and then heat up the outer cup when threaded into the frame.

Pars 

Never used these, but from reading your linked thread, I'm thinking it might need a bit more persuasion than the handle of a screwdriver? Maybe a block of wood and a hammer?

Charles Wahl

Well, I was whacking it. The BB is in the refrigerator now. I'll try that first, with heat applied to the "cup" when threaded into a frame, and of course a block of wood and hammer. Need 4 hands for this, I guess. I have a heavy rubber hammer, too.

RobbieTunes

I have encountered this while using ISIS bottom brackets. I thread it (fully) into a bb shell, and then go to the other side. I do not tap. I wiggle. In other words, I put light pressure with a lever between the shell and the spindle on the opposite side of the stuck cup, working my way around.

Mainly, because I feel like tapping can "seat" a stuck cup that has a worn groove around it or something, and I'm not sure the sealed stuff was made, in any way, to take those kinds of forces.

"Wiggling" address the bind, so to speak, and provides instant feedback: you can feel if it moves, even a fraction. Do not be greedy, be patient. It will come.

Charles Wahl

I refrigerated the BB, then installed in frame (drive side) and whacked the other end of the spindle with a hammer. Dropped right out, but the spindle came out of the bearing, not the BB unit out of the cup. It wasn't too hard to separate the bearing and cup, gently with a punch going round and round. It was almost as hard to install the aluminum Italian drive-side cup. Again, I refrigerated the BB/spindle, and heated the cup on a lightbulb. Then I put the NDS spindle end in a vise, and tapped round the flange of the cup with a small hammer.

mrcurly

Resuscitating this old thread for anybody else stuck with this dilemna...

I purchased one of these QB55 IRDs to install in my '77 PRN10 Pug as part of a reno project, mainly because they also sold the hard to find Swiss cups for the BB. The instructions appear simple, remove the drive side cup and replace with the swiss threaded cup set. Having disassembled their BB I can see the problem with that - the bearing is pressed onto the spindle, with the casing pre fit up to the bearing, so if you are able to get the cup off on its own good luck to you!

I tried the freezer and warming method, though rather than using my bike frame as a potential anvil, I found some thick walled (32mm inside diameter/36mm od) irrigation hose with the perfect size - around the same size as the shell, and used that as an improvised press.

I drilled a hole through the plastic pipe near the opposite end and put an alloy rod through there to stop it rotating, then stuffed a piece of scrap timber under it and placed the pipe in a vice. Applied some lanolin oil to the inside of the plastic pipe and tapped the bb in to the pipe, the plastic will expand slightly over the threads then stop at the cup end when you apply a bit of force.

My original bike had a cottered crank, and that spindle proved very useful. if you don't have a spare spindle you need to improvise. So firstly with a block of wood and rubber mallet i knocked the IRD spindle down through the bearing, which separates the IRD spindle from the shell. This leaves the cup, outer shell and bearing to separate. With the spindle you can now tap carefully on the inner race of the bearing until it separates from the cup - and pushes the shell off with it. The shell only presses into around 5-6mm of the cup/bearing, but is that tight...

Finally, to remove the cup from the pipe i just used a BB extractor on a socket, the various bits of BB that drop into the pipe can be pushed out with a bit of electrical conduit, dowel or whatever you have available.

This process was nowhere near as straightforward as expected, though I don't mind making custom tools lol. For the money, I expect IRD could build the bearing shells to your spec rather than leaving it up to the user to reverse engineer their bb. Probably the only good thing from all this is I now know what Tange bearings IRD use, meaning their 'sealed' unit could have the bearings refreshed in future if required.

fettsvenska 

I know this is an old thread but I just thought that I would share how I solved this problem. My solution actually works really well. Just remember to be careful and not tap on the bottom bracket too hard.

1. Order QB55 bottom bracket and swiss threaded cups.
2. Realize that getting the existing drive side cup off is going to be difficult
3. Put the bottom bracket in a vise between 2 pieces of wood so that the lip of the drive side cup is supported.
4. Tap the spindle along with the non-drive side bearing out of the drive side bearing.
5. Use a 7/8 dowel to tap the drive side bearing and bottom bracket sleeve out of the drive side cup.
6. Reassemble the bottom bracket by putting the sleeve back on and tapping the drive side end of the spindle back into the drive side bearing.
7. Realize that you've put too much stress on the drive side bearing sometime during the previous steps and therefore ruined the drive side bearing.
8. Don't be a potty mouth in front of your kids.
9. Order a Velo Orange threadless bottom bracket and wait for it to arrive.
10. Install the Velo Orange threadless bottom bracket as per the instructions.

And there you have it. That's all you have to do.

repechage

thanks, I saw over time the Bottom bracket unit and the extra Italian cups... way too much of an ordeal to make the swap. they should have just made assembled Italian bottom brackets.

droppedandlost 

I've changed cups on two of these and had no trouble.

repechage

Good, what was your procedure?

nazcalines

I've used both the QB55 and QB75, and both cups came off without needing any tools. Maybe they were older versions?

droppedandlost 

I just set it in a vise and tapped it out with rubber mallet. Manufacturing tolerances?

mrcurly

I think the tolerances are extremely tight on some of these, I know the one I have was an absolute mongrel to separate, then when it did pop off the bearing came out of the shell with it.. thats how tight it was! You really need to be careful with these to protect the threads and bearings, using material like plastic pipe or similar to evenly tap the outside rim of the shell without damaging anything, or if you can support it evenly then push the spindle back the other way carefully to separate.

fettsvenska 

This was my experience as well. The bearing was so tight inside the drive side cup that it was quite difficult to get out. I was using a 7/8 inch wooden dowel as a driving pin to get the bearing out and I had to make harder strikes with a hammer than I would have liked.