Guys,
Having a problem with my Primo Powerbites bb. I installed this on an old bike, took em off, and am putting them on my new bike. I am having a problem with the spindle moving the sealed bb races around - when I pound it through, it pushes the bearing out of the cups so that it's bellied out, instead of being flush. One popped all the way out so I cleaned it (there was a little rust between the bearing and the cup, which was a little disturbing), put a little lube in there, and pressed it back in. Since they're a pinch bolt design instead of a push-in design (like Profiles) I'm thinking about running them without the spacer on the spindle, but that's kind of a last resort. Anyway, if you have any ideas, please share.

Do you mean that you can't get the spindle through the bearing at all? I just bought a set of powerbites. When I pushed the spindle through, the opposite bearing came out a little, but I was able to pound it back in with a rubber mallet while the spindle was through it. I would think that as long as the spindle end bolts are kept nice and tight and the spacers are butted up against the bearings, then you shouldn't have a problem with them popping out.

Thanks. The spindle goes through (although it does take some pretty stout whacks), but it grabs a little bit on the bearing and pushes them out of the cups a little (not out of the bb shell as one bearing/cup combo, know what I mean?). You're probably right - the bolts on the spindle should probably help draw the bearings back in. I just hadn't seen the bearing loosen from the cup before after doing this two or three times on various bikes.

That's exactly what happened to mine... the the bearing started sliding out of the cup when I pushed the spindle through. After the spindle was all the way through I just whacked on the edge of the bearing with a rubber mallet and it went back in. This was my first ever experience with 3 piece cranks, so I guess I had no expectations, and there were no instructions, so I had to 'wing it'. They work great though.

Thanks. That's reassuring to know. They were great on my last bike, so I'm putting them on my new DK Four Pack. I'll just quit being a mary and bang them in tonight after work. Thanks again.

Had a similar problem on Redline Proline cranks.
M**********R! Ended up removing the spacer (there was only one included, not two sizes like other cranks) and hand sanding the spindle with superfine wet sandpaper for about 20 minutes.
Still super tight, that pretty much took care of the problems with plenty of lube on the spindle during the second attempt.

I forgot to mention it took a 3 ton press to remove the spindle after installing it the first time. I had ruined the seals on the bearings during the installation, so I ordered a generic sealed set from Dan's comp, hoping that the ebay seller that sold the Prolines to begin with sent me a mismatched
set, but that was not the case, the new bearings were just as tight, that's when I thought about machining the spindle but the quick hand sand worked fine in this case.

Ugh. What a chore. I had to grind out a washer with a dremel to fit that 22mm spindle and I thought that was bad.

Oh, just as an epilogue - I got the bike together. I figured out a way to get the bearings seated into the cups without removing the spindle: I took a new (unscracted on the ends) peg, placed it onto the bearing, and gave it a few whacks with the handle end of a hammer. Worked fine and gave plenty of clearance for the spindle.

For my next stunt, I'm going to try to convert my front hub from 14mm unsealed to 10mm sealed.