water in frame, drain hole blocked :-/

chatlow

Picked up Cube GTC pro yesterday to put in the car and heard a sloshing sound. Appears to be coming from the chain stays and BB area. Removed the seat post and some water has dribbled out. Keep rotating and flipping the bike and some more trickles out but still quite a lot in there.

Hole for the FD cable is clear and nothing coming out of there, but the drain hole under the BB was rusty and looks to be blocked with crap. Got a small allen key and poked some mud/grease, whatever it is away from the hole (but still in the frame) but the water is still not dripping out.

Sloshing sound is a little better but I can't get rid of it. Any other points of ingress I could look at?

When I look down the seat tube with a light, I can see cream/grease at the bottom which looks wet. Will remove the water cage bolts on the seat tube now but if not much the water is not coming out the seat post then find it unlikely this will help.

Thanks

The Rookie

It will get in, you need to make sure it will get out, remove the BB and make sure the drain to the hole is clear.

My last frame also had two decent drains at the back of the chain stays to standing it up on the back wheel for 15 seconds would empty it.

chatlow

surely this can be flushed out without having to remove the BB. If it sounded like the water had got past the seal and was stuck in the BB only then fair enough, but I can hear is moving between the stays and BB.

sungod

better to take out the bb as above

you can then see what's inside there and clean it out

any hole between stays and the bb cavity may not be that big, and a cf frame may have bits of stray plastic film inside (from the fabrication process) that could trap water, with the bb out you'll be able to see what's going on and if necessary use a bit of wire to clear the path for water to drain

chatlow

Makes sense, i was hoping to avoid messing with the BB because it's press fit and i don't have the tools :-s

Guess it would be a good excuse to change it to hollow tech

The Rookie

Just remive the cranks then and clean out the BB she'll so it drains!

chatlow

but removing the cranks will only expose the inside of the BB shell.. the drain hole is directly below this shell, so I'll need to remove the BB completely to get access to it

chatlow

So I removed the crankset and can see some droplets of water in the BB shell. Is there a recommended method to remove this BB-71? A few suggest carefully using screwdriver/hammer to tap around from inside.

Once it's out I'll be cleaning everything and then fitting a Hollowtech II BB instead, as easier to install.

Thanks

chatlow

sungod wrote:

better to take out the bb as above

you can then see what's inside there and clean it out

any hole between stays and the bb cavity may not be that big, and a cf frame may have bits of stray plastic film inside (from the fabrication process) that could trap water, with the bb out you'll be able to see what's going on and if necessary use a bit of wire to clear the path for water to drain

Just FYI - Got the BB out and found that unfortunately this area is completely sealed off from the chain stays and seat tube. They don't openly link to it, so water isn't flowing there and any moisture here must have got in through the bearings over time.

Anyway, I've managed to get more water droplets out of the seat tube by turning the bike around and almost dislocating my shoulder. Still some on the stays but I guess it's staying there thanks to a crappy frame design by Cube.

svetty

Hairdryer blasting down the seat-tube??

dee4life2005

Unless you've removed both wheels, have you checked its not water trapped in your rims? Have had rims full of water before after some long rainy rides (water getting in down the valve hole) - some wheels have a small drain hole for water to escape, but its tiny and easily blocked.

keef66

chatlow wrote:

So I removed the crankset and can see some droplets of water in the BB shell. Is there a recommended method to remove this BB-71? A few suggest carefully using screwdriver/hammer to tap around from inside.

Once it's out I'll be cleaning everything and then fitting a Hollowtech II BB instead, as easier to install.

Thanks

According to Shimano, removing the pressfit BB-71 can damage it so they don't recommend re-using them.

You can't replace it with screw-in HT2 cups; your BB shell doesn't have any threads...

(I have a pressfit BB-71 on one bike and a BS standard threaded BB with HT2 cups on the other. HT2 is undeniably handy if you just need to whip it out to peer inside the frame)

chatlow

dee4life2005 wrote:

Unless you've removed both wheels, have you checked its not water trapped in your rims? Have had rims full of water before after some long rainy rides (water getting in down the valve hole) - some wheels have a small drain hole for water to escape, but its tiny and easily blocked.

definitely not the rims as just bought new ones and not been out in the wet yet - but as a sanity check, i did look ha!

Svetty wrote:

Hairdryer blasting down the seat-tube??

^^ did this lol. might have helped :?:

keef66 wrote:

chatlow wrote:

So I removed the crankset and can see some droplets of water in the BB shell. Is there a recommended method to remove this BB-71? A few suggest carefully using screwdriver/hammer to tap around from inside.

Once it's out I'll be cleaning everything and then fitting a Hollowtech II BB instead, as easier to install.

Thanks

According to Shimano, removing the pressfit BB-71 can damage it so they don't recommend re-using them.

You can't replace it with screw-in HT2 cups; your BB shell doesn't have any threads...

(I have a pressfit BB-71 on one bike and a BS standard threaded BB with HT2 cups on the other. HT2 is undeniably handy if you just need to whip it out to peer inside the frame)

yeah, i'm definitely not using the old BB's. Planned not to when smashing them out with a screwdriver! rather than go down the route of buying a BB convertor (threaded insert), I've gone and bought replacement BB-71's. Collecting tomorrow.

Will prob get shop to fit them rather than buy the tool