Installing FSA or Sram cranks without wave washer

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lewishong9
Posts: 60
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2018 7:15 pm

by lewishong9

Has anybody installed a FSA or Sram crank without using a wave washer?

While installing a brand new wheels MFG BB, crank gets quite stiff to turn when I put the wave washer.
It seems that I have plenty of preload and no play on the crankset even without the wave washer.

TobinHatesYou
Posts: 12457
Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2017 12:02 pm

by TobinHatesYou

You *probably* don't need the wave washer with a WheelsMfg thread-together BB, if that's what you have. I'm not sure if the cartridge bearings are kept in place with C-clips or just an interference fit. Worst case is you pull the bearings out of the cups and add some retaining compound to the equation.

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TimW
Posts: 536
Joined: Sat May 09, 2009 1:52 pm
Location: England, UK

by TimW

Pretty sure I didn't use it on my BMC with wheelsmfg BB.

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lewishong9
Posts: 60
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2018 7:15 pm

by lewishong9

Thanks guys!

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wheelbuilder
Posts: 1193
Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2017 2:10 am

by wheelbuilder

You never "have" to use wavy washer. You can experiment with spacers and run it with no spacers at all if you can torque the crank bolt all the way to spec and have no play. The super thin clear plastic .01mm spacers that sometimes come with various bottom brackets can be really helpful to get the perfect combination of smooth spinning and no play.
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