WheelsMfg Creaky PF30 BB Conversion Kit

watto77

Looking to see if anyone else has a similar problem and hopefully get a bit of advice...

I have a Ridley Noah SL and swapped the creaky standard PF30 BB for a shiny new WheelsMfg PF30 Outboard kit. WheelsMfg makes a big deal about stopping creaks in PF30. However, it still creaks! Instructions for the BB say to tighten to between 35-50NM. This is quite a wide variance. Currently, I have gone to 40NM, but am worried about the compression on the carbon BB shell. I have tried various types of grease, no grease, and even plumber's PTFE tape. It still creaks! I have not pulled the trigger on retaining compound yet, as having contacted Ridley they specifically advised against it. Ridley also suggested that there may be a crack in the BB, but on close inspection, there is no sign of this.

Has anyone else got a WheelsMfg PF30 conversion? Same problems? Any solutions?

Thanks in advance.

crankycrank

Contact Wheels Mfg. They may have a suggestion or offer refund/replace. Usually a very helpful company.

sungod

are you absolutely sure it's the bb creaking?

not the spider, crank, spindle, qr, freehub, etc.

watto77

Thanks. I will try WheelsMfg. I am as certain as I can be that it's the BB. I have had everything apart, de-greased, regreased & tightened multiple times, including chainrings, cranks, pedals, headset, QR skewers. Used two different sets of pedals, two wheelsets and even swapped the Stages power meter for the original crank arm in search of the noise. Still there. How frustrating!

sungod

fwiw i've used the bb30 outboard gxp version with no issues - to allow using a gxp pm in a bb30 frame

i tightened to 48Nm, bb shell is one of the chunkiest parts of the frame, perhaps try getting it a bit tighter

for carbon bb surface they say to use '100% ptfe' rather than standard grease, maybe this stuff? http://www.finishlineusa.com/products/b ... oro-grease

cycleclinic

You are overworrying. Tighten up to max torque. There is a wide range of torque because there is a wide range of bb id's the bb is designed to work with. Creaky pf30 bb happen because of poor manufacturing tollerwnces. It is not wmf fault. Fit it properly and if it does not kill the creak then it is likely the bb shell id is out of range of what the wmf bb is designed to work with. In this case a othere bb might work. The problem however is your frame.

Tub glue is worth a try for fixing the bb if the ptfe grease fails. Tub glue is keeping the big press fit bearings in my look creak free because the loctite that look supply cant.

svetty

Generally if the creak is originating from the interface between the BB shell and the (aluminium)cups it will be abolished on initially re-fitting the BB but recur after a while. If it isn't improved at all after you have re-fitted the BB then I'd want to be certain that the creak is truly from there.