Wrench for Bottom Bracket Facing Tool Guide

The 1699.5/4P is the small flat-steel wrench that tightens the facing guides of the 1699 BB facing tool into the shell. It's a specific piece for a specific job: seating the threaded BSA or Italian guides flat against the BB shell face so the facing operation runs from a solid reference. Generic adjustable wrenches don't fit the guide flats cleanly; this one does.

What this piece does

The wrench engages the machined flats on the outside of the BSA facing guide or the Italian facing guide and transmits the torque needed to bottom the guide against the shell face. Two tightening passes are common on a fresh setup: hand-thread the guide until it bottoms gently, then quarter-turn with the 1699.5/4P to seat the outer face flat against the shell face. Repeat on the second guide. Both guides should sit flat-and-square once the wrench is used; that flat seating is what the 1699 facing tool registers against.

The wrench is sized only for the 1699 facing guides. It is not a general-purpose BB wrench; the flats it engages live specifically on the guide bodies of the 1699 BSA and Italian variants.

Compatibility

• BSA Bottom Bracket Facing Guide 1699/4BSA
• Italian Bottom Bracket Facing Guide
• Used as part of a complete Bottom Bracket Facing Tool 1699 setup

Specs

• Type: small flat-steel wrench for facing-guide retention
• Function: tightening BSA / Italian facing guides into the BB shell
• Material: steel, flat profile sized to the guide flats
• Made in Slovenia by Unior

Includes: One 1699.5/4P wrench.

Made in Slovenia, since 1919

Unior has been forging hand tools in Zreče since 1919, and is the official technical partner of multiple World Tour and downhill teams. A small wrench for a specific accessory is the kind of piece that makes the difference between a complete frame-prep kit and a kit that almost works. Reaching for an adjustable wrench, an offset crescent, or a small pliers to tighten the facing guide is how guide flats get rounded; once the flats round, the guide is harder to back out and harder to seat next time. The dedicated wrench is the cheapest insurance against that wear pattern.

Pro tip from our mechanics

Resist the temptation to over-torque the guide. The guide should seat flat-and-square against the shell face, but the threads holding it there don't need to be tightened past hand-snug plus a quarter-turn with the 1699.5/4P. Over-torquing the guide doesn't make the facing operation cleaner; it does make the guide harder to back out cleanly after the facing pass is done, and on aluminum or thin-wall shells it can deform the shell face the guide is supposed to register against.

Keep the wrench in the 1699 facing kit, not in the general workshop drawer; it's small, easy to lose, and the only correct fit for the guide flats. A shop running both BSA and Italian facing operations uses the same wrench across both, so one wrench is enough for the whole 1699 system.

The BB-prep pillar walks through the full sequence (chase, mount guide, face) with the wrench step framed in its role: Frame prep: threaded bottom bracket shells →