Advice: Campy BB 'clicking' sound

[mcteague]

I have had this happen in the past and it always came down to the QR. When riding, I was sure the click came from the BB. I even stripped it down, cleaned and greased only to still have the noise. Cleaned and oiled the QR and all was well. Also make sure the dropouts and fort tips are really clean.

Tim

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by cgolvin

Thanks all. Yet another opportunity to express my love of Paceline. Condensing responses…

- Yes, my shoes have laces but they are well secured.
- I first noticed this last week on my standard wheels, recurred yesterday while testing some carbon tubulars. However, I used the same QR in both cases so will double check tightness.
- Installation is about 6 months old but the groupset was used (bought here) and I don't know the mileage at purchase.
- Not sure exact vintage, it's white label SR and I think it's ~2010 (paging Clean39T).

I just took Calnago's advice and I am, indeed, able to compress the non-drive side and produce a noise that does sound very similar to what I'm hearing. However, and I should have said this originally, I don't have a big torque wrench so when installing I simply gave it full gas and hoped to get in the vicinity of 45nm. So…

Before disassembling to check the cups, should I first ensure that the cranks are adequately torqued? Or should I go ahead and take it apart?

Take it apart, check for wear inside the cups..if there is, replace with NON SR, greenish cups(with seal)...LOTSA grease inside BB shell, inside cups. If older frame, maybe some teflon tape around threads of cups. Spin bearings..if there is ANY grittiness at all, replace and use just standard stainless bearings..US made ones are great and not a lot of $(NOTE-They are 6mm in width, not 7mm)..lotsa grease around bearings and onto hirth teeth as well.

BTW-I have the bearings..from Wheels Manufacturing.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by cgolvin

Thanks.

Best practice to replace c-clip and wave washer along with new cups, or can I re-use them?

They come with a new clip and wavy washer..use the new ones.

[Calnago]

I should have also mentioned that when you remove the cups, if you can tell that the BB has never been properly faced, then that would be a good thing to do as it could easily be the cause of wear on the cup surfaces if they’re not perfectly aligned with each other. Proper facing will ensure they are.
Also, SR cups have had seals for some time. If you’re using them with the CULT bearings the seals are easily removeable, or left in, at your discretion. Plus they’re black.

[bikesickness]

I had the same issue recently with a 2010 SR group. The cause in my case was a lack of grease in the BB cups.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by Calnago

I should have also mentioned that when you remove the cups, if you can tell that the BB has never been properly faced, then that would be a good thing to do as it could easily be the cause of wear on the cup surfaces if they’re not perfectly aligned with each other. Proper facing will ensure they are.
Also, SR cups have had seals for some time. If you’re using them with the CULT bearings the seals are easily removeable, or left in, at your discretion. Plus they’re black.

Teeny, weeny point..SR cups don't have the seals in them but can be added. NO reason to NOT have seals, even on CULT bearing cranks..ceramic can get gunked up just like stainless ball bearings can.

Thing in R cup is wavy washer.

[ultraman6970]

Was the OP i would just take the cranks out, clean and repack with a lot of new lithium grease, reinstall, and test.

[Mzilliox]

I swapped wheels, and i still have my popping sound. It almost sounds like its coming from the front end. I tightened the headset, it was pretty tight, still popping/clicking, rotationally, consistent. fork damage? ill try cleaning the dropouts. it happens whether i pedal or not, so pretty sure its not the bb or crankset.

[Mzilliox]

Originally Posted by marciero

Is it wheel-rotation frequency? Can you narrow it down to one wheel? Still do it when you, eg, unweight the wheel? If it's not coming from a spoke (in which case a little oil on nipple or where it crosses other spoke could fix it) it might be the valve stem moving and clicking against the side of the valve hole. I had this happen once on a tubular tire. At least I think that is what it was. A little electrical tape fixed it. Or I should say it seems to have gone away. If it's a threaded valve stem I would thing a stem nut would at least diagnose the problem.

Nothing to offer the OP, but there is a long thread somewhere on Paceline with lots of potential causes.

unweighted, on the stand, no sounds, its perfect, nothing from drivetrain, dead silent. as soon as i add 150lbs to the bike, i get the sound. i tried another set of wheels (mavic tubulars then Bora tubulars), also tubular though, maybe it is the valve stems... ill get on that next.

[colker]

Square taper bottom bracket.

[Mzilliox]

Marciero, brother, thanks for restoring my sanity, i now have a quiet bike again!

it was the valve stems knocking, put at tem nut on each one and viola, silent and stealth again.

[beeatnik]

I've had intermittent clicking/clacking on my C60 since I installed a 2011 Chorus crankset. The clicking actually began as creaking which I was able to isolate to a chainring bolt. Then a week later the bike began to metronomically click during out of the saddle efforts, in every gear. Dead silent in the saddle. So went down the list: skewers (r45 hubs), headset, brake cables and seatpost. It wasn't until reading this thread that I considered bearings. The clicking resonated as previous loose integrated headsets. Short story long, I was ready to replace the 2011 cranks with the current 4-arm (why buy new bearings for a $100 used crankset). Then, yesterday, a moment of divine intervention, a gust of wind knocked over my bike. Hard enough to scuff the right shifter worse than on any of my high speed crashes. At some point on the ride home I realized the clicking was gone. Gracias a Dios!

But

BUT

It came back in the evening. Yet, I began to think the temporary silence was related to the impact. And then it finally dawned on me. The left crank arm had this zip tied to it:



Four years ago, when I bought the cranks, the thing was so tight that I couldn't cut the tie without marring the cranks. Last night it was loose enough to move up and down half an inch.

It never stops.

[cgolvin]

Originally Posted by ultraman6970

Was the OP i would just take the cranks out, clean and repack with a lot of new lithium grease, reinstall, and test.

Thanks for all the advice, took me a while to find the time for disassembly.

I don't know if this is related to the noise, but it took some oomph to pull the non-drive side out, and when the crank came out the bearings dislodged from the crank arm and remained in the cup.

Untitled by cgolvin, on Flickr
Untitled by cgolvin, on Flickr

Not sure what the best path forward is here. I have a new set of SR cups (not the green Record ones, got OP's post after I bought these) but I think I need to first remove the bearing from the cup and reattach it to the crank, no?

Your collective wisdom and guidance appreciated.

[Hindmost]

That's interesting. Yes, to proceed you should pull the bearing out of the cup and place it back on the crank arm. I wonder that you would be better off with new bearing(s) and your new cups. The thin seals can be popped out of the old cups and placed into the new ones.

[yashcha]

My SR cranks always clicked when the crank bolt became slightly loose, and they would get loose quite often, which drove me crazy.