So, the saga of the stuck crankset on the PPPKN-10, (for those who are not me, that's my probably a 1981 Peugeot PKN-10, sticker bomb, frankenbike) came to an end this evening, after: (Skip the whole list if you don't care; the much shorter question is at the bottom if this excessively long and self-revealing post.)

• Stripping the threads of both arms.
• Buying and using a cheap-buttocked set of chuck wedges and a Park shop hammer. This removed the non-drive arm in pretty short order. The drive side? Well...
• Tried the wedges. Set came with four. I destroyed two.
• Ordered a hacksaw. Waited a day.
• Commence to hacksawing. Slots between arms. This is made substantially more difficult by the 26t granny ring, which, of course, can't be removed with the crankarm still attached. Even if you
  • Saw off the 110mm mounting tabs.
  • So, tape it as far out of the way as I can, and try not to saw into it.
  • Saw, wedge, saw. Saw, wedge, curse, saw. Saw, wedge, hammer, saw, curse. Saw, wedge, fail. Saw wedge fail.
• Go to AutoZone. On the bus. In the rain.
• Rent gear puller. 2-arm and 3-arm convertible. Return home. (See above.)
• Find secure attachment of puller to crankarm. This takes a really, really long time, and involves moving and reversing every arm on the puller. More than once. And also requires Viole straps to hold all the linkages in place while I align the whole rig and start tightening it into the spindle. (With my two arms, hence the straps and the cursing and the hours and whatnot. Having three would help with more than just ski-boxing.)
• Welp, that didn't work.
• Order ball-joint separator kit, go to bed.
• Ball-joint kit delivered, commence to hammerin'.
• Crankarm refuses to move. At all. But what does happen is that the fork gets hammered into the aluminum of the arm, so I...
• Remove the front derailleur and use the crankarm as a bottom bracket tool and turn the whole assembly out of the frame. This doesn't take any more force than I'm used to with Shimano cartridge BBs, so I fugure that I'm done with the hard part.

As you've no doubt guessed, I was wrong. The fixed cup threads in to the shell by just about 1 full turn, maybe a bit less. Like, maybe 10:45 to 11:15, ya know?

So what I'm wondering is this:

Is this what you'd get if somebody forced a British BB into a Swiss-threaded shell, and, if so, what are my options now? I ordered a new 110mm UN-300, but I don't want to bugger the frame by force-screwing it in there. The dude I bought it from already did that once and seemed to get away with it, but twice?

The frame is in that transitional period when a French bike could be damned well anything, thread-wise.

My other option would be one of the Sunlite threadless ones, if any shop around here has the chamfering tool that I expect they need.

Thanks, all!

--Shannon