So I was trying to put the Fsa x-drive bottom bracket on my Imperial, I looked at the directions on Fullspeedahead.com but didnt find them much help. Right now I have the drive side bb cup in with the evil srs boomerang and the little silver iscg tab thing, I dont know what to do now. Help!
Help on installing FSA X-Drive Bottom Bracket
- Thread starter dG video
- Start date
It's pretty easy.
1. Tighten down the drive-side cup so it's tight as crap, holding the chainguide in place nicely.
2. Stick the spindle into the drive-side crank and tighten the crank bolt ALL the way down, so it's tight as crap.
3. Add as many spacers as you want between the spider/chainring and the BB cup to get the chainline you desire. Stick the spindle thru the BB cup, so the spindle sticks out the n/d side.
4. Slide the red spacer in over the spindle.
5. Put in the n/d side BB cup, tighten it down so that it BARELY touches the spacer; you want absolutely no sideloading of the bearings, which will be caused if you tighten that cup down too much.
6. Being very careful not to tighten the n/d side BB cup any more, put the lockring over it, and tighten the crap out of the lockring. It helps to keep the BB cup in place with an ISIS BB tool so it won't spin while you tighten the lockring.
7. Add enough spacers between the n/d crankarm and the BB cup so that the crankarm won't hit the frame.
8. Tighten down the n/d crankarm until there's no side-to-side play in the whole assembly. If you make it too tight, you'll sideload the bearings and they won't last very long.
The whole assembly should be like a headset -- you don't want it too loose or too tight. But a headset bearing can take a bit of a compressive load, and these bearings can't, so be careful and don't squeeze your arms or cups too tight.
Also, on my Imp; I added a tiny bit of spacers inside (red spacer + a couple mm's of extra spacers) so that the cup would stick out further on the n/d side, which gave the lockring a little more space to thread on. I can't remember whether the lockring uses an XTR-style BB wrench or a Truvativ one, but it's one or the other or failing that, a Vise-grip or Channel-lock wrench.
1. Tighten down the drive-side cup so it's tight as crap, holding the chainguide in place nicely.
2. Stick the spindle into the drive-side crank and tighten the crank bolt ALL the way down, so it's tight as crap.
3. Add as many spacers as you want between the spider/chainring and the BB cup to get the chainline you desire. Stick the spindle thru the BB cup, so the spindle sticks out the n/d side.
4. Slide the red spacer in over the spindle.
5. Put in the n/d side BB cup, tighten it down so that it BARELY touches the spacer; you want absolutely no sideloading of the bearings, which will be caused if you tighten that cup down too much.
6. Being very careful not to tighten the n/d side BB cup any more, put the lockring over it, and tighten the crap out of the lockring. It helps to keep the BB cup in place with an ISIS BB tool so it won't spin while you tighten the lockring.
7. Add enough spacers between the n/d crankarm and the BB cup so that the crankarm won't hit the frame.
8. Tighten down the n/d crankarm until there's no side-to-side play in the whole assembly. If you make it too tight, you'll sideload the bearings and they won't last very long.
The whole assembly should be like a headset -- you don't want it too loose or too tight. But a headset bearing can take a bit of a compressive load, and these bearings can't, so be careful and don't squeeze your arms or cups too tight.
Also, on my Imp; I added a tiny bit of spacers inside (red spacer + a couple mm's of extra spacers) so that the cup would stick out further on the n/d side, which gave the lockring a little more space to thread on. I can't remember whether the lockring uses an XTR-style BB wrench or a Truvativ one, but it's one or the other or failing that, a Vise-grip or Channel-lock wrench.
Oh, I forgot the most critical setup part of X-drives. Put a ton of Blue Loc-tite on the non-drive crank bolt (careful not to get any in the splines). The n/d side crankarm WILL back out if you skip the Loctite, I dunno why but everybody's seems to.
Basically, that crank bolt isn't tight enough that the tension will keep it from unthreading, so you need the loctite. If you make it so tight that it won't unthread by itself, you've probably crushed your bearings into dust.
Basically, that crank bolt isn't tight enough that the tension will keep it from unthreading, so you need the loctite. If you make it so tight that it won't unthread by itself, you've probably crushed your bearings into dust.
basically what he said, but me being anal and all like to make sure the spacing is centered, so in that case you have to match both spacer widths. So the spider width + spacer should equal the non-driveside spacers. Also the red center spacer is made for 68mm bb spacing; if your effective spacing is more (like with a chainguide spacing the BB cup out), you should add those internal spacers.
Takes a bit of fooling around with the spacer combos.
Takes a bit of fooling around with the spacer combos.
I spend ages tinkering with mine, and set it up so I can tighten the absolute crap out of the non-drive crank bolts, as the whole thing compresses up against the spacer but doesn't preload the bearings. But this means alot of fiddling so the bearings have a tiny amount of preload on the spacer before the lockring is tightened, to allow for the cup to be pulled back out by the lockring.
It isn't that hard to do, just takes a bit of trial-and error.
It isn't that hard to do, just takes a bit of trial-and error.
you are my hero....i've been trying to do that for so long but never quite nailed it, so i've been going the loosey-goosey method.Rik said:
One thing i noticed that may make it hard to do so is the fact they use two bearings on each side. Really these bearings sit fairly loosely in the cups, so i believe alot of the side loading comes from the inner races not contacting eachother as much as the outer races; this could make it harder to get that equilibrium.
I'm gonna look into finding double row bearings, so really there only a single race on each side of the bearing, hopefully improving the fit.
I'm a bike pervert though, I have no problem spending over an hour just setting my chainline and bottom bracket properly.
If you think these are tricky, try working with Profile and similar, just spacers and non-adjustable cups... no lockrings or anything. Talk about a pain in the arse... tighten cups, install cranks, check for play, pull everything apart, insert spacer, install cups, install cranks, check for play, pull everything apart, swap spacer for narrower spacer, tighten cups, install cranks, check for play, swear alot, and repeat.
I try to use loctite as little as possible, sure, it has its uses, but if I can tighten the bolt as much as possible without fear of killing something (eg, bearings), I'd rather do that than rely on loctite to hold it all.
Plus there is a very slight possibility, that if the whole lot isn't tightened down, that the bearings could move around a bit in the shell. But usually they're a good enough fit that it shouldn't be an issue.
If you think these are tricky, try working with Profile and similar, just spacers and non-adjustable cups... no lockrings or anything. Talk about a pain in the arse... tighten cups, install cranks, check for play, pull everything apart, insert spacer, install cups, install cranks, check for play, pull everything apart, swap spacer for narrower spacer, tighten cups, install cranks, check for play, swear alot, and repeat.
I try to use loctite as little as possible, sure, it has its uses, but if I can tighten the bolt as much as possible without fear of killing something (eg, bearings), I'd rather do that than rely on loctite to hold it all.
Plus there is a very slight possibility, that if the whole lot isn't tightened down, that the bearings could move around a bit in the shell. But usually they're a good enough fit that it shouldn't be an issue.