So I have ridden about 300 miles on this bearing but started to hear creaking in the lowest gears.
I took it all apart and it seems the culprit is the NDS bearing inner race has some rust on it, and there was moisture or gap between the race and the spindle? I greased them when I first installed it, although not alot.

There is also some discoloration on the NDS side of the spindle probably from the slipping.

Could it be my wave washer preload wasn't enough causing the movement or the bearing race just a bit on the small side. Drive side is perfect..

Was about to apply some loctite so the gap is closed.. What should I do now?

Common? I noticed a little bit of liquid in the C-clip groove. the shell doesn't have a hole for venting or draining..





Once removed but before cleaning, spend some time giving the bearings and surfaces a good looking over to check for signs of wear or corrosion. Notice the rust marks by the pointer. Water will most definitely work its way in and settle in a pool if it has no way out. Drilling a drain hole in the bottom bracket shell is a worthwhile step – although it's probably frowned upon by manufacturers. Now prepare to reassemble or install new bearings. Make sure that the circlips are still correctly seated in their respective grooves, which are located just inboard about 1cm from the outer edges of the bottom bracket shell. There's no need to remove them.





http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/w ... ets-29544/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

haven't had anything like this with mine

fwiw i use anti-seize on the spindle rather than plain grease, which should be more resistant to corrosion

i don't think the wavy washer will make much difference

on mine there is annular outer 'cap' that sits over the bearings, i pack the space behind this with the same grease used for the bearings, i'm a lot more generous with the grease here than is shown in the article you link to

it's possible for water to get in via the seat post, or other openings in the frame, then run down onto the spindle/bearings from the inside

from your pictures, it does look like the tolerances could be a bit out, 300 miles is not very far!

I only applied a film on the contact surfaces, spindle, race, back of dust shield, I guess I should have overly applied grease so that grease ooze out,
my guess is that some sports drink or sweat.. got seeped in there.

Is there something I can do to polish out the rust a little.. spent a bit on the bearing so want to try to reuse it.

Update.. I cleaned the spindle with toothpaste and there is some brown rust on the towel removed, spindle looks good now.

I cleaned the bearing race with 2000 sandpaper.. very mild abrasive and removed some of the rust spots, not perfectly shiny but I didn't want to remove much material, going to grease it up and give it a try.

Anybody who is familiar with my posts will know I'm a BB30 aficionado and without being too simplistic I never seem to get any issues with my multiple BB30 equipped bikes and I put this down to being extremely generous with applying lots of red'n'tacky waterproof grease everywhere when installing and I am lazy with maintenance otherwise as I run my own bikeshop so any wrenching on my own bikes is a busman's holiday and I avoid if I can. I had a BB30 equipped Bianchi in last week with exactly the same issues as the posters. It was very difficult to get the chainset out as the the bearing had become corroded to the spindle, it needed quite a bit of persuasion to come out and as the frame set was carbon we had to be extra careful. We basically removed all signs of rust, re-applied copious amounts of grease to all surfaces and even popped of the seal on the bearing and applied grease inside, then torqued it up to spec, problem solved and I anticipate many trouble free miles, customer has already been back in touch to communicate his delight
Crappy phone pic of said bearing that I took to show customer.

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Ti or dye!

The Weenie formally known as CAADHEAD

It is good to know it will go back together without trouble, what did you use to remove the rust?

I would use a dremel to remove the rust. Then apply so automotive grease used for ball joints. The drain hole in the BB is sometimes pointless because the water will pool on the sides of the BB anyway.
Best thing to do is clean up the BB after a ride in the rain.

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I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. If you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later. --Graeme Obree

I use some very fine emery cloth.

_________________
Ti or dye!

The Weenie formally known as CAADHEAD