Originally Posted by
Robertbarr
The longer you ride like that, the looser it will get. If I tighten mine with as much torque as I feel comfortable with, I get about 20 miles before I can feel that 'jump' in the driveline every crank revolution. Sooner or later I'll wear out the threads, and I have no idea what I'd do then. Panic, I guess.
I don't have a solution yet, which is why I signed up to this forum in the first place. I found some discussion of this FF system on this forum through a search engine.
It's not the threads in the spindle that are wearing out, it's the splines on the crank. Eventually they'll get to a point where they're so loose that the crank won't hold tight at all.
Don't panic, though- you may be able to find the parts. They're more than 20 years old, but I'll bet more than a few were ridden then put in the back of the garage. It'll be a matter of finding them. If it were my bike, I'd be asking the local used bike places, the
CCC and
Citybikes Co-op. Such are the advantages to lliving near bike-mad Portland.
There was a previous discussion about removing the Front Freewheel system from a rider who was making the bike a fixie. I gave him some tips (I worked on the FF systems when they were new) and I told him to offer up the FF parts on Ebay.
If that doesn't work, I read about a distinctly shadetree method of repair: after removing the crankarm, you'll see the peaks and valleys of the splines inside the crank. The mechanic filed off the peaks with a
carbide rod saw in a hacksaw frame. These notches were then filled with short pieces of 1/8" diameter welding rod, and the whole assembly was pounded back onto the spindle. Apparently it worked well enough- the owner kept riding the bike without the crank loosening.