Bottom Bracket, Crankset, Rear Hub, & Cassette

New parts came in last night, and I spent some time today mocking the bike up. I'm not going to torque things down just yet, I'm just test fitting at the moment.

So, New Toys!
Shimano BB-UN55 - These are available in various sizes and I think they are way better than rebuilding the original bottom bracket, just from a dependability standpoint. I went with 107 x 68 to, hopefully, get the chainline I need with my crankset.

The UN55 is a good replacement for the original Raleigh BB Cups, and is threaded British/ISO @ 24TPI. It comes with an Aluminum off-side cup, unlike the nearly exact UN54 which uses a plastic cup.

I applied a liberal coat of grease to the thread on each cup and installed the drive side first. The BB threads weren't as clean as I thought they were, and I had to stop and completely back things out a couple times, then I went into the BB with a thread chase/gauge and cleaned things up a little bit more.
The drive side will bottom out when fully installed. The non-drive side doesn't have an obvious "stop" on the cup, so it needs to be eyeballed so that it's even with the BB shell.

Crankset installed. Mmmmm, lookin' goooood!

I also installed the new cassette on the rear hub.
Shimano CS-6500

Aaaaannnd, then it got ugly.
The rear derailleur hanger bolt sits about 1mm away from the lock ring on the cassette. It's close enough that if I tighten the hub skewer too tight, it'll touch the lock ring, and cause the rear hub to bind.
I've been able to find very little info on the internet about this, other than the rear dropout is likely bent. I tweaked it about with a crescent wrench and managed to improve things a little bit, but I think it's going to require an expert before I'll feel comfortable riding it.
Sorry, I really, really tried to get a clear photo, but the iPhone camera just can't deal with close up stuff.

That's it for now. I've got a rear derailleur coming on a slow boat from China, literally, and it'll be a couple of weeks before it gets here. Once that comes in, I think I'll get the frame into the shop and see if I can get the dropout fixed up enough to be able to actually ride this thing safely.

Coldset & Alignment

I decided I would coldset the rear triangle yesterday, and check the frame for alignment. I used instructions I found online at The Plano Cyclist. It took about an hour, as I was being super careful to not hork things up. Long story short, the rear hub now fits beautifully.

I checked the frame alignment using a bit of cord wrapped around the bike. It was 2" on the left side, and 2.25" on the right. I'm not sure if that's factory, and I have no way of checking really. I'm going to assume it to be correct, and if I discover later that it's not, it'll be super easy to throw the bike on the work stand and start tweaking things.
I checked the measurements after I spread the frame, and they were the same. That's actually a good thing, as it means the triangle stayed "square" throughout the coldsetting process.

I also checked the rear dropouts for alignment, using the instructions I found on Seldon Brown's website. I used a couple of pieces of all-thread, rather than using a couple of old axles. It looked almost perfect, and a bout of pushing and pulling on the all-thread brought the dropouts into perfect alignment. I didn't even have to use a hammer.

I also went to the Post Office and picked up my newest bit of goodness for the bike.
Shimano 105 FC-1056 (eBay - $208.74 w/Shipping)
Super sexy. The eBay ad said there was some shop wear, but dammed if I can find it. If I didn't know this set was NOS, I'd swear it was brand new.

That's it for today, have a great weekend all. :)

Front & Rear Hubs

Good News Everyone!

I went to the post office this morning and picked up my new hubs.

Front Hub: Shimano 105 HB-5600 36Hole w/QR Skewer Silver ($23.98 eBay w/Shipping)
Rear Hub: Shimano 105 FH-5700 36Hole w/QR Skewer Silver ($56.60 eBay w/Shipping)

The front hub fits just fine without any modification to the fork.

Amazingly, the rear dropout spacing is almost perfect as well. I'll still need to coldset the frame, but I only need to spread it about half an inch at most.

I think I'll try to work on that next weekend. I'll need some All-thread, Nuts, and Washers. Time to go to the DIY store!

Headset & Bottom Bracket

So, I've managed to get a little dis-assembly work done on the Raleigh. I've taken apart the headset, and the bottom bracket.

Measurements for future visitors:
Bike: Raleigh Super Record
The BB Cups Threading is 24TPI
The BB Shell is 68mm Wide
The Spindle that was installed in my Raleigh is marked 3T. I've no way of knowing if it was original or not, though I suspect it was based on the chainline.
The "3" means it's for a 68mm bottom bracket, and the "T" means the dimensions are 32-52-39, or 123mm overall, with the right side 7mm longer than the left.
See Sheldon Brown's chart for more measurements.
Spindle Bearings: Spindle Bearings are 1/4"

Headset Bearings: Headset Bearings are 5/32"
Steerer Tube: 1"
Steerer Tube Thread: 24TPI
Steerer Tube/Fork is marked Tange OL Made in Japan.

(Apologies for the crappy iPhone pictures, it's all I have.)

I can't imagine the life this bike lived before I bought it, but to say it was neglected is being kind. The grease in the headset had completely broken down. All that was left was a black looking wax, and there wasn't much of that left either.

While I was cleaning and inspecting things, I found the Stem Wedge inside the steerer tube. I tried to tap it out with a long screwdriver, but it wouldn't budge. I sprayed some WD-40 into the top and bottom of the tube and set it aside for about a half hour. Then sprayed it out and set it aside again for another half hour. Then I tried again to tap it out with the screw driver. The wedge fell right out. I suspect it was just rust and dirt holding in place.

I went over the headset races with a ball point pen, and they're not in very good condition.

I'm not sure what I'll do. I could rebuild this headset, and probably get a few more years of service out of it, or replacing it with a Vintage/NOS Shimano 105/Ultegra/Dura Ace Headset would be a good idea. Also, Velo-Orange.com offers a headset that I really like. The Grand Cru Rinko Headset-JIS.
The idea is that it can be easily taken apart to park the bike into a bag for transport. One of those would make it a fair bit easier for me to dis-assemble the bike to take on vacation, and while they're expensive, a NOS headset would probably be just as expensive. I'll have to think about it.

Alright, that's enough for one night.