ollyisk

i've never had a harder time doing any work on a bike before (not to say i've got a ton of experience).

last night i decided i was going to repaint my beater beast. simple enough, right? well, i got everything off then decided to tackle the bottom bracket. my dust covers are made of plastic--20+ year old plastic to be exact. the drive side dust cover came off fairly easily, without actually destroying the dust cover.

however, the other dust cover wasn't so forgiving. it totally disintegrated--with the plastic still threaded. i thought long and hard about how i should get the plastic out...my most extreme thought was to get a lighter and melt the hell out of it. i decided to sleep on it, and this morning i just said, "f it" and decided to go at it full throttle with a screw driver, i was able to get most of the plastic chunks out, which allowed me enough room to get a socket wrench on the 14mm nut. i've been completely unsuccessful in unscrewing it. i've literally never tried this hard to unscrew anything in my entire life, and i think i've caused more harm to myself (esteem and body) than i have to the nut.

does anyone have any advice to getting this thing off? i swear that nut is fused to freaking spindle. any tricks of the trade would be greatly appreciated.