Originally Posted by
Johno59
Errrh ....just a thought. From the foto it looks like the crank is kaput. The hole at the base of the crank where the spindle rests appears to be badly eccentric. It is supposed to be perfectly round and a tight fit on the spindle prior to being secured by a cotter pin. Hopefully it is a optical illusion but it appears to be badly worn and no amount of chain-ring straightening will fix that.
It doesn't look oval to me, the perspective of the inner wall as the only thick section could be illusory. Futher, there is precious little mechanism for that hole to become oval [1], and even if it were as long as the axis of the ovoid section lined up with that of the axle all it would do is change the crankarm length slightly.
[1] absent violent impact, of which there is no sign.