Originally Posted by
zandoval
Also my home-made copper tool, and my beat up wood chisel tool... In frustration I took a crank over to a now sorely missed, local machinist for ideas on how to proceed. His procedure was odd but remembered. He asked if my crank had been soaked with PB Blaster. Yes, several days... of course. He then took a can of Liquid Air for cleaning PC keyboards and turned it upside down and sprayed (trifloroethane) over all the bolts liberally till ice from garage air condensation was forming on the crank. After the crank warmed up he used my Park tool nut wrench to ease the bolts off the crank.
So what was it, the PB Blaster, the chill, the wrench, or the meticulous slow practiced method of a real Machinist?
...thermal shock is often used on stuck threaded fittings. There's even a commercial product for this that combines a coolant and a penetrant, called Freeze Off. It's sold in auto parts places.