Originally Posted by
LesterOfPuppets
I've gotten slightly creaky cranks to go silent by slightly overtorqueing crank bolts.
I find a lot of times freshly installed square tapers will creak a bit after riding a few miles on them, so I install, ride about 5 miles mostly standing to pedal, do a couple bunnyhops, then come back and tighten crank bolts again.
Sometimes you can get that to work. As long as you do not overtorque the bolt itself and snap it, the arm can take a significant amount of torque past specification. If the bolt breaks however, its a real bug to fix. The bolts don't drill well and the bb spindle is very hardened so it doesn't tap well. Try it conservatively up to say 50-55 ft lbs and see if it changes. Wouldn't go past 60 though.