Mega EXO Installation

[mortman]

Hello,

I'm attempting to install a mega exo BB for my new team issue carbon cranks, and could use some guidance. I installed the bottom bracket per the directions, and found that there was some binding between the crank and bearing. Upon further inspection, it seems that the splines are not clearing the bearing on the left side, and I'm assuming when I torque the crank down it's putting to much side load on the bearing. After reading some other threads on this subject several people suggested removing the two inner sleeves. I did try this and it seems the splines cleared the bearing, and it's spinning freely, but given a lot of durability issues on these bearings I'm not sure I want to leave the inner sleeves off.

So,

- Is it "required" for the splines to clear the bearing, or should I just tighten the left crank down until it spins freely, regardless if it's seated?
- Am I missing something here? I removed the crush washer that goes between the bearing and frame, put the protective sleeves in, and tightened the bearings down. The splines still didn't clear the bearing, and there was a gap between the BB and frame, meaning the sleeve was preventing it from getting any closer. How can this be?
- Anyone run these without the inner sleeves? Did it seem to reduce durability?

To the untrained engineer, this seems like a pretty poor design. My 7 year old could swap an Ultegra crank. This has crush washers, rubber washers, loctite, and requires a ton of force to even get the crank arm on.

Anyway, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Mark

[cmg]

you have discovered the flaw with the design. and it may not be a flaw. the inconsitence is the level of tolerance in the BB shell. The decision is do you ride till faillure and upgrade the bearings later or go to a different crank BB setup. i wasn't a fan of the plastic/carbon cover between the bearing and crank arm spindle. It felt flimisy to me so i went to another crank. now i have a resurrgence of weight weenie tendencies and may buy and it again. with a willingnes to trash the bearings as the experiement.

[Srexy]

My mega-exo crapped out after only 3000 miles. Chris King came to the rescue.