difficulty banging sealed crank bearings into cups

[firebird4130]

installing a 3pc crank ,can anyone tell me if it's normal to have to beat the bearings into the cups like a man possesed? I seem to remember it not being easy but it seems just too tight, any tips for getting them in ?
cheers,
fraz

[SaMAlex]

they are often hard to get in. Its usually cos they aint going in totally straight.

The best way is a bearing press. Failing that, press them in in a Vice.

[firebird4130]

I knew you would know  I just pm'd to ask!
Cheers!

[Gary72]

I find it's down to the bearings, got a new set of cranks, see my other postings, got bearings not a matched pair and one pushes in by hand and the other needed some HELP

[firebird4130]

It's a nightmare, I've already banged the cups in thinking the bearings would just press in, they were hard enough to fit now I'll probably have to hammer them out tomorrow, and try the vice alex suggested. Great getting advice on this site though I have killed bikes before when there's no one to ask   

[Gary72]

I'd leave the cups in but dont forget to put the spacer in before the 2nd bearing

[firebird4130]

yeah I'm glad you said that , as I was beggining to convince myself that I didn't need it! I've always had this with doing bikes I'm like a perfectionist with setting them up, but have to go through several catastrophic errors before getting to the end result, I should know as I've even fitted cranks recently but it's just gone from my head! Every time is like the first 

[sonic-1]

ooooo that sounds like so much fun 

[pickle]

i'll tempt fate but say i've never had trouble fitting bearings in a BB, my fly spanish ones just needed tapping in....and the ones on my Sugino CT just pressed in with my fingers 

with regards the spacer, i just put one side in, then put the spindle through with the spacer on, then push the other bearing onto the spindle and push it in 

[perry]

so youve put the alloy cups into the frame without bearings in them ?

knock em out and push the bearings into the cups . the bearings are the only part thats guaranteed to be made properly

they WILL fit into the alloy cups , its putting the cups/bearings into the frame where the problem is as no one ever decided what size it shoud be 

ive had cups that were 2mm bigger than the shell 

get a digital vernier caliper ( few quid these days ) and see what the tolerance is , but i can see you having to sand the cups to fit