So I was trying to take off the FSA cranks on my brand new Topstone last night to put my power meter crank on and had a bit of an issue. The FSA cranks use the typical self-extracting bolt but the crank arm is so stuck to the spindle that the bolt broke right through threaded retaining piece that it pushes against to remove the crank arm. So basically I'm screwed right now. The only way I can thing of to remove it is to get out the sawzall and hack off the non drive side arm. Has anyone seen a better solution?

Remove the bolt and use a standard threaded crank puller, or a pair of Jacobs chuck wedges.

+1. I learned to not rely on the self-extracting caps as they are generally fairly flimsy for the torque usually needed to remove a crank. Many have bent or broke their self-extractor caps and feckered up the crank threads. Stick with a proper crank puller.

The problem is that the threads got completely ripped out so a crank puller won't work now either.

In that case just try the Jacobs Wedges dsbrantjr mentioned.

I've had the crank stay on and the self extracting ring strip the threads out of the crank arm..

so I get rid of them and use anything but.

In my case the extractor ring only engaged and so stripped out half of the extractor threads closest to the outside
and the real crank puller tool managed to get a grip on the remaining threads further down ..


your professionals at the bike shop may have dealt with this before, and so have tools to fix this for you..





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Try a standard ol' every-day gear puller.
Jon

I ran across this looking at Jacobs wedges. That may work, I need to locate one now.

You can rent one from any auto parts store, autozone etc..

The Jacobs Wedges seem like a nice tool to have in the bag....

I see that there are 4 sizes..... anyone know the correct one for removing the cranks?

I think it really depends on your crank arms and the spindle.

Jacobs taper wedges are only suitable for sq taper spindles. Fluted spindles are either 24mm or 30mm in size and no Jacobs taper
wedges are that large. FWIW the wedge set 13269 for JT6 taper is the size that fits a square taper spindle.
There is mention of using two wedge sets, one on either side of the spindle, the wedges are slotted to normally fit over the
spindle but if the spindle is too large then you might be able to jam them on one side and by tapping down pop the
crank off. This works best if the back of the crank is flat and not tapered toward the spindle.

Only seen pictures of these but if the internal width is right they might work: https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/performance-tools-ball-joint-separator-fork-drop-forged-steel-disconnects-ball-joint-from-connecting-links-w1206p/11506072-p?c3ch=PLA&c3nid=11506072-P&adtype=pla_with_promotion&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7M24-76q4QIVENvACh1XkgQLEAQYASABEgIiRfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Looks like they would need some grinding to work on a 24mm spindle, but they are beefy enough to allow this.
Probably need some thinning of the wedge for use on a bike crank if the width is right.
Cheaper variants of same: https://www.harborfreight.com/catalo...oint+separator

Not working.....

Yeah I've tried the sawzall but I think I need a better blade, I wasn't making much progress on the steel spindle with the ones I have.

https://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catal...Removal-Wedges

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-To...0025/203581294

https://www.shopjfi.com/industrial-s...el-wedges.html

https://www.groveproductsinc.com/index.php/wedge-shims

I win.

Once you had this thing separated, were you able to knock the plug of the spindle out of the crank arm?

Thank You, great information

Haven't tried but I'm not hopeful. I kinda don't want to see that crank ever again tbh

Was that puller tool not pushing against the crank arm at the same time it was pushing against the spindle?

The puller drive screw was not centered over the spindle, thus the force being applied was not effective. It is tough to actually center the screw using a 3-jaw puller in this application. A 2-jaw will sometimes work better. The best solution is to use a bearing separator behind the arm in conjunction with a steering wheel puller (the kind with slotted arms for bolts that screw into the bearing separator).

I am looking at the blade on the reciprocating saw in the background. That steel is hard as that blade is toast.
Nice work and hope the rest of your build goes a lot easier.
Frank.

Actually, that blade is what did the trick. You should see the three blades I tried before this one. THEY'RE toast. I had to go to Lowe's and get this diamond tipped blade because nothing else was working. Went through the spindle like butter, totally amazing.