oneclick 

I have a Zeus TI BB axle that has pressed-on steel races which have pits.

It's a long shot, but are replacement races available?

'02 nrs

maybe inquire here?"The Spanish Orbea firm has since bought the name and makes Zeus-branded parts." https://sscycleworks.com/components/...kets-Zeus.html all Zues BB's appear threaded.VeloBase.com - Component Listing
good luck!

southpawboston

Are you concerned about keeping it authentic or do you just want to utilize the Ti spindle? You could remove the steel races and measure the diameter of the shoulders and possibly fit standard cartridge bearings and use Phil rings as the cups.

juvela

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back when Arregui was yet Arregui and these 2000 bits were current separate races for the spindle were never shown in any of the manufacturer's catalogue materials

one possibility might be to take measurements in an effort to determine if they might interchange with the maker of another brand of titanium spindle...

i once had an irreplaceable bottom bracket spindle with pitted and spawled races redone by a process of "hard chroming" and regrinding


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bulgie 

Those existing cones can probably be reground. Ideally by a machinist but I have gotten some decent results using a drill press to spin the spindle, and sanding cloth or paper wrapped around a rod of appropriate diameter to do the shaping. Have the spindle pass down through the hole in the table, then the sanding rod is laid on the table. Gives you fine control over the positioning of the sanding rod.

You can't grind very far in the radial direction, not much material to work with that way. But you can grind it back, axially towards the centerplane of the bike. You're making your spindle a little narrower, as in maybe (if the pits are deep) you won't have enough threads on the adjustable cup for the lockring. But for any normal amount of pitting, this is a trivial amount. Many frames have BB shells slightly less than 68 mm wide anyway, so this could even improve the fit, at least visually — fewer "extra" threads on the adjustable cup, out past the lockring.

This drill press technique works well for hub cones also.

Since the Zeus spindle is somewhat precious, try this technique on a cheap spindle you don't care about first, to hone your technique.

Mark B in Seattle

Stevensb 

Seems to me that not long ago there was a thread where someone ( @Madhonk ? ) was polishing out pitting on cups.

cheers.

Brad

Mad Honk 

Yeah, it was me. I offered to do the same for this but no response yet. The amount of removal of metal is about 1mm for the entire spindle and cup sections. Smiles, MH

oneclick 

I know about trying to grind/polish out pits, that's a non-starter. I've measured race concentricity and smoothness, and there is no point in trying to achieve the necessary level of precision; when you consider than grade 25 balls vary less than one ten-thousandth of an inch at the maxiumum, and pits/fretting damage are visible when they are the same order of size (though by the time they get noticed they are usually *much* deeper), there is no way someone using a cheap hand-tool with a runout twenty times that can do more than make it shiny. And drill presses are notorious for runout, never mind hand-holding the abrasive. Hold six-tenths? I doubt it.

I did try this once, put a pitted TA axle on a small Brown & Sharp horizontal mill, mounted a spindle with what I though was a fine-grain stone in the vice and went at it. Various steps after that finishing with jeweller's rouge. The end result was not worth the time and bother.

oneclick 

Yes, I have been tempted to press them off and see if a standard cartridge bearing will fit.

bulgie 

Yeah you're definitely not going to get "as good as new" or anywhere near that, with any home-handyman DIY method. I only suggested it as one step better than riding them pitted, or throwing the spindle away.

Mark B

dedhed

I see what you did there.

'02 nrs

received a reply from an ebayer in Spain offering Zues bits who may have the pressfit races;Hello. I think I have but in another store and I do not know when I could go for it because we are confined by the Virus and can not circulate in Valencia. Thank you

New message from: coleccionismojb (123)

auctions; https://www.ebay.com/itm/143372013311?ul_noapp=true