Originally Posted by HamboneSlim

Thanks for the info, Road Fan.

The bike is a '74, and I'm the original owner. THe cotterless cranks, the weinmann hubs, new winner freewheel, tall seatpost and bar stem, all my doing. All done in the mid-late '70's & my memory of all the specs is a bit hazy.

The cranks are shot in that the chainrings are very worn, and the large ring is swaged on. THe non-drive crank is now bottomed out on its taper and starting to creak, it's on so far the dust cap hits the bolt threads before seating. Also, they are 170mm & I have a 36" inseam, and would really like longer cranks. And it's very hilly here and the 42T small ring is to large for me these days. I've gotten good use from this crankset and am satisfied I've gotten my moneys worth from them.

However, I'd really like to put on some longer French cranks with at least a 53/39 chainrings.

The new winner freewheel is a 13/28 and in fine shape, but I'm swapping it out for a 6speed winner ultra that's 13/30, again for that little extra help up some of the hills in the neighborhood. 42/28 is a 1:1.5 gear ratio, 39/30 would give me 1:1.3, which I think will be just enough to get me up and over. I'd also be willing to try even smaller rings; would hate to loose anything off the top end, but really need help up the hills. 1:1.5 was fine 30 years ago, but the bikes a little older now, and it's harder to get her to go over the hills.

As far as measuring the taper, that's exactly what I'd like to know: the dimensions of JIS and ISO tapers.
The taper on the new spindle is .50 at the small end and .55 at the shoulder, taper length is .74 from the shoulder to the end of the taper.
It's a 3T which is prolly too long anyway. I can turn it around if it is too long, I guess, until I can get the exact length I need.

Pedal threads do look like 5 per 1/4".