Servicing Campagnolo Ultra-Torque cranks

It's been quite a long time since I originally bought my Campagnolo Athena 11-Speed groupset, it's covered a lot of distance too, probably about 10 000+ km so far.  Testament to it's quality it still serves me very well, however I have noticed that there is a slight roughness to the non drive-side BB bearing.
I'm guessing that the reason it is the non drive-side is that this bearing is a little more exposed to the elements compared to the drive-side bearing which is shielded by the crankset spider.   I'm well aware that I should really replace the bearings completely, which I will do in due course, however for now I'll clean them out and give them a bit of grease.

Firstly the cranks will need to be removed, this is very simple with the Ultra-Torque design.  You will need a special 17mm allen socket which is quite long to reach the bolt in the middle of the Hirth joint between the two crank arms, I've always loved the design of these cranks.  There is a retaining pin on one of the BB cups which will need to be removed before both cranks can be pulled out. Once the cranks are off, lever off the bearing cover with a fine screwdriver...

These bearings look a little grimy...

Flush out the old grease and replace with fresh grease and pop the seals back in place and you're done.  These bearings aren't really meant to be serviced like this as far as I know, however if you want to extend the life of them it's good to change the grease in them periodically.



2 comments:

  1. Thanks for this, useful stuff.

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  2. I have a click on the right side on every pedal revolution. Will regreasing stop this or should i replace the bearings

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