sseebart

New to the forum, so please let me know if this is in the wrong place . . .

My daily bike is a Centurion Ironman that I bought new back in '88 and have been upgrading ever since. Last September I starting riding again in earnest and have been going through old components like crazy. The latest casualty were the old Biopace cranks that came with the bike.

I found a nice Shimano 105 triple (stamped FC-5606) on ebay (new, but not in a box, go figure) and bough a new Ultegra BB to go with it. Put it all together yesterday and although it rides fine, I'm just not sure I got it right.

I have two questions I was hoping to get help with. First, should there be a gap between the crank and the bearing on the non-drive side, or should I have some kind of spacer in there?



Second, I'd like some advice on what kind of chain to use. These a slight noise with the chain on the middle ring, and I suspect the chain is a tad too wide. Searching online, I see that the 5600 chain is recommended for the crank, but I'm not sure an ultra-narrow chain will work with my collection of freewheels. I have friction shifters, so indexing isn't a concern--but the chain does have to fit into the cogs.

Thanks--in advance--for any help you can offer

~Steve

CardiacKid

New in the box, they come with multiple spacers and a chart as to which spacer to use on each side, depending on the bottom bracket width. You can probably download the chart from the internet, but I have no clue where to get the spacers.

RobbieTunes

1-Try loosening the screws on the L crank arm quite a bit, then gently turning the dust cap; this may draw the L arm in tighter.
2-With the dust cap off and the screws on the L crank arm loosed, hold the R side against a wall or something and tap the L arm slightly, it may help move the L arm closer to the BB.

I've used Hollowtech II cranksets on Ironman bikes and they snugged up just fine, but they were doubles.

sseebart

Thanks, both. After I posted, I did some additional research. The difficulty is in sorting through all the different tech sheet and the bewildering array of spacers for Shimano cranks. Looks like, though, that the triples require a 3mm spacer on the non-drive side.

I searched by the part number on Amazon and came up with one for about $5--it's in the mail now, expedited.

Would love to get out and ride, but not sure it's a good idea with no preload on the bearings. Patience, I guess.

~Steve