Originally Posted by
Dan Burkhart
More than once, I have disassembled Ashtabula cranks that have been in use for a while to find the entire bearing assembly bright and sparkling with no sign there was ever a drop of grease anywhere near them. The most recent was a trike I serviced last year for a 92 year old man.
Just so. I have found, despite their crude (by modern standards) design, they are by a wide margin one of the most dependable systems. They take abuse like no lube or poor adjustment and laugh at it. I have seen the crank fracture at the threading, though.
Must be those 3/8 bearings.