bottom brackets ranging from inexpensive Sun-Race ones to this 'cheap old thing'
often work by having shoulders on the spindle and a spacer tube which is the same length
when fitted as the distance between the shoulders on the axle. This way when the cups are tightened in the frame the bearing outers are trapped between the cups and the tube, and the spindle is laterally located properly. All the fits on the bearings can be sliding fits, on both the spindle and where they mount into the cups.
Now, the tube must compress slightly when the cups are tightened, and my experience is that with cheaper BB units this can impose a significant preload onto the bearings. I think the Royce BB has the spacer tube slightly longer than the shoulder distance on the spindle, to allow for such compression, and cheaper units are not so cleverly thought out.
The Token BB is different. The cups compress the centre tube, but don't trap the bearing outers; they are a (fairly loose on the left, fairly snug on the right) sliding fit in the cups, and they are 1-2mm shy of bottoming out inside the cups too. I've dismantled a Token BB and it seemed to me that the bearing centres were pretty tight on the spindle; I guess they need to be because they contribute to the lateral location.
IIRC the aluminium flanges are somehow just shouldered onto the carbon tube. This means that if you knock the RH cup off, then the LH bearing off the spindle, then the flange off one end of the spacer tube, you can then reassemble the BB as per normal in situ. You just need the carbon tube (less ally flange) to pass through the BB shell OK, and to be able to refit the bearings on the axle. If you do this I'd suggest a little Loctite on the bearings (inner and outer) wherever the fit is a bit too slidey.
hth
cheers
