[Camilo]

Every day's a new lesson.

I'm building up an 80s Italian Sannino frame with parts on hand, except really the only part I had to find (and it actually wasn't all that easy!) is an Italian threaded Octalink Version I bottom bracket in 118.5 mm spindle length. (Shimano 9 speed triple crank is what I have and what I'm using, by god!.... shifting a 10 speed cassette with friction shifters!)

So, I know the Italian is right threaded both sides, unlike English. I've probably installed 4 or 5 English bottom brackets in the past two or three years alone. It's not rocket science and I've never had one iota of problems. I use a torque wrench!

So I installed this one exactly the same, - because the Shimano instructions were exactly the same for both. Put grease on both side threads. I've ridden it 2 or 3 times, maybe 3 hours total. And low and behold, today I'm going to ride 10-15 miles after work and about 2 miles out from my car the whole drive train gets really hinky. Luckily I noticed fairly quickly, but it took me a lot of looking and messing to finally notice the drive side of the BB had unthreaded. 2 mile walk back to the car, alternating with sitting on the saddle, scootering it with the toes barely touching the ground. Down a busy street, across a couple of busy intersections.

So THEN I decided to read up on Italian BB's. Found out you really have to reef on the drive side, rather than just snug it up firmly like the English ones (and like the Shimano instructions). Also read a couple of recommendations to go ahead and use blue locktite on the drive side, (some said not to). But I went ahead and cleaned it all up, put some blue locktite on it and torqued the drive side fully, and then greased and torqued the non-drive side per instructions/specs.

Wish me luck boys and girls! I guess I'll be ever vigilant with this BB, although I've never given a BB one thought after installing it in the past. I'll probably inspect this thing every ride, and maybe even take it apart in a couple of weeks just to reassure myself that the drive side can be disassembled (I've never had trouble "breaking" blue locktite before). Get back on the horse, going on a ride first thing in the AM

 

[JCavilia]

If you cleaned up both threads well and used plenty of Loctite, you should be fine. And you will be able to disassemble when necessary -- I wouldn't bother with the test disassembly. Might take some oomph on a breaker-bar extension, but it will move. The Loctite reaches a certain level of gumminess when it's fully cured, but doesn't get any harder or stickier after that, IME.

 

[Kerry Irons]

Every day's a new lesson.

I'm building up an 80s Italian Sannino frame with parts on hand, except really the only part I had to find (and it actually wasn't all that easy!) is an Italian threaded Octalink Version I bottom bracket in 118.5 mm spindle length. (Shimano 9 speed triple crank is what I have and what I'm using, by god!.... shifting a 10 speed cassette with friction shifters!)

So, I know the Italian is right threaded both sides, unlike English. I've probably installed 4 or 5 English bottom brackets in the past two or three years alone. It's not rocket science and I've never had one iota of problems. I use a torque wrench!

So I installed this one exactly the same, - because the Shimano instructions were exactly the same for both. Put grease on both side threads. I've ridden it 2 or 3 times, maybe 3 hours total. And low and behold, today I'm going to ride 10-15 miles after work and about 2 miles out from my car the whole drive train gets really hinky. Luckily I noticed fairly quickly, but it took me a lot of looking and messing to finally notice the drive side of the BB had unthreaded. 2 mile walk back to the car, alternating with sitting on the saddle, scootering it with the toes barely touching the ground. Down a busy street, across a couple of busy intersections.

So THEN I decided to read up on Italian BB's. Found out you really have to reef on the drive side, rather than just snug it up firmly like the English ones (and like the Shimano instructions). Also read a couple of recommendations to go ahead and use blue locktite on the drive side, (some said not to). But I went ahead and cleaned it all up, put some blue locktite on it and torqued the drive side fully, and then greased and torqued the non-drive side per instructions/specs.

Wish me luck boys and girls! I guess I'll be ever vigilant with this BB, although I've never given a BB one thought after installing it in the past. I'll probably inspect this thing every ride, and maybe even take it apart in a couple of weeks just to reassure myself that the drive side can be disassembled (I've never had trouble "breaking" blue locktite before). Get back on the horse, going on a ride first thing in the AM

You might need LockTite but in most cases an It BB just needs lots of torque. I put 90,000 miles on an It BB and it only loosened once, right after I had done an overhaul and not tightened it enough.

 

[crossracer]

Yep, welcome to Italian threading.
The only other thing is that I put a small mark on the bb and bb shell so I can see if it has moved.

But once you tighten it down, they work well.

Bill

 

[Camilo]

Thanks for the feeback guys. I did really clean everything up well, squeaky clean just as if I was going to prime and paint it, put on quite a bit of blue locktite, and really tightened the drive side very, very tight. I've ridden it 20 miles or so, with no movement that I can see. I will take the advice and mark the cup and the BB to more easily see any small movement. I'm not going to mess with it, just watch it more than I normally would.

Like the bike though!