bottom bracket help

[mikek]

Hi! So, on a whim I bought an old motobecane folding bike that I am sort of restoring. It has a three piece bottom bracket with cottered cranks. I can't get the fixed bottom bracket cup (crank side) out despite PB blaster, gripping the cup in my vise and turning the frame, and trying a trick I read on Sheldon Brown's site where you put a bolt though the cup and use it to try to unscrew the cup. Yes, I also hit it with a torch! I can't budge it!
Any other ideas? I can post a picture of it if it would be helpful. To make things worse, I understand from reading Sheldon Brown's site that the cup could either be right hand( French) or left hand (Swiss) threaded so I really don't know which way to turn it! :?
One piece cranks are a lot easier, huh!

 

[Bendix]

sounds like it should just stay there unless there's a compelling reason to remove it. you can just mask it to paint, you can leave it in place to service the bb, and if it's a weird thread you probably can't replace it with anything else anyway..... :wink:

 

[mikek]

Re: bottom bracket help- Success!

Persistance pays off! Sheldon Brown's trick worked when I used a breaker bar with a piece of pipe over it for more leverage. Turns out the cup is left hand threaded (Swiss).
Now I can replace the bottom bracket with a more modern one and get rid of the cottered cranks!