Originally Posted by conspiratemus1

Single-speed?, ah OK then.

Why did you take the bolts out after torquing the cranks on? They (and their washers) are meant to stay in place. But having removed them, how much space do you see between the top of the crank hole and the end of the spindle? If flush, the spindle taper is too small — the bolt is bottoming against the end of the spindle instead of pressing on the crank. If the crank has been taken off and put on many times over the decades, the holes may have been worked larger. You want at least 1.5 mm clearance. More than 4 mm or so means the spindle taper is too fat, the crank won’t fully seat.

In any event, if you have a good fit, and chainline is OK, put the bolts and washers back in, torque them, and leave them alone. You shouldn’t need to remove them for the life of the bottom bracket. I like to use dust caps so that if a bolt does start to loosen it can’t fall out onto the road, followed shortly by your crank.

(I don’t know why the left-side ring doesn’t want to screw in all the way. I’m not familiar with threadless cartridges. Did you ask VO?)