Originally Posted by Salubrious

My first 3-speed would have had me drinking pretty heavily if only I drank. I had to take the cranks off the spindle about 10 times; had the BB apart 3 times, changed out bearings, 3 bearing cups, even the spindle trying to find out what was causing the crank to bind. Turned out to be the left side crank arm was cast too thick and was engaging the bearing cups of the BB. That took a bit of filing to correct, but then the corrosion would build up since the finish was gone and the problem would reappear. I still have not got the finish issue fixed but so far not had any further problems.

None of the other machines have given me such problems, but it might be because I know them a bit better now...