Bicycle Mechanics - New (to me) Puegot trying to SS, having issues

I bought this probably 10 yr old Puegot bike for $40 and I am trying to make it a single speed. I started at the rear and tried to get all the gears off. I am stuck. I got the gears off by unscrewing a pace and then pullign up, but all the little bearigns fell out and now I have just this inner race still on the wheel. I broke the ring that holds the drive pawls in too, but I can't get this race off to save my life.

On the front, I also can't get the crank off. I pulled the nut inside the crank arm but it still won't budge.

HELP ME PLEASE!!!

http://community.webshots.com/album/186069729UUzdNR

here are some pics of the bike, down near the bottom are the most recent of my problems.

The best way to remove the remains of your freewheel is with a freewheel puller; either buy one or ask a friendly local bike shop to perform the extraction for you. You can also try using a bench vise at this point, particularly since you apparently do not plan to salvage the freewheel.

Is the crank cottered or cotterless? Cottered cranks require either skill and patience or expensive special tools, whereas cotterless are easier to deal with, provided that you invest in the proper tools.

hes got a cotterless, john. look at the pics...

dude, since you screwed up the freewheel, it might be easier to get a new one. you might be able to put the remains of what is left on the wheel into a vise a twist it off, but it is doubtful, it'd probably be easier to get a real SS wheel at this point.

AS for the crank, you have done no irreversable damage. right now...STOP what you are doing. the next step requires another tool. it is called a square-taper crank puller. go to your friendly local bike shop, and tell them that is what you need. a square taper crank puller. got it?

ok. to work the crank puller, thread the big set of threads into where the bolt used to be. now, spin the handle to get it to lever off the crankset.

parktool has a pretty good site that has fairly easy instructions to follow. www.parktool.com check it out.

From the pix of the remains of the freewheel it looks like the pawl pocket is your best point of attack.
Get a file and convert the pocket into a flat. Should be two pockets, flatting both will allow you to
clamp the flats into a vise and use the rim of the wheel as a wrench. Thread is R hand, just make
sure you are unscrewing it the right way. Also make sure when you file that you don't file a taper
in the flat and the flats should be parallel to each other or it will cam out of the vise. And don't file through to the threads. Steve

Well, I ended up getting the crank tool at the LBS and left the wheel for them. I had to have the wheels retrued and the rear re-dished anyway, and since I was going to buy a BMX freewheel to replace that one anyway, I left the freewheel removal for them.

One thing I learned from this, when things seem impossible, there is a good chance there is a special tool for it. Any advice on places on the bike for the future I should just know ahead of time I will need a tool for?

Theres a lot of places... sometime while you're at the LBS peek into the workshop and check out all the tools on the walls. I'll bet you won't recognize a bunch of them... those would be all the specialty tools for bike work. There are ways to get around using the proper tool in some cases but I would never recommend it. I'm a big fan of the right tool for the right job, and if you don't have the right tool, suck it up and pay someone a few bucks to help you out.

Tools I would add immediately-
17, 13 and 15mm cone wrenches
Freewheel removal tool (and a wrench to turn it if you dont have a good vise)
Cable cutter

I think theres an obvious one or two im forgetting but im too tired to remember right now.

So what is the difference between a cone wrench and my basic Craftsman wrench?

a cone wrench is really skinny, so that it can fit on the flats of cones on your hubs.