n0dice

By combination of my own lack of knowledge and some poor mechanical advise, I'm in quite a bind. I recently put some old (1970s I'm told) aluminum Shimano 600 cranks on my road bike. It's a double and came off of an old Raleigh, if that helps. I'm not sure of my BB make (came with the bike) and do not want to pull the right crank until I determine what the best course of action to take. The bottom bracket would have been made in around 1985 however, so it's much newer than the crank. I'll save you the long story of how I've gotten to this point, unless anyone really wants to know, and simply state the problem:

I have a left crank that is so far onto the spindle that it contacts the outer face of the bottom bracket. It seems to do so most notably at one particular place in the crank rotation. The crank threads are completely gone so it's not possible to extract the crank with a puller. I have done some research (I read the sticky) and have found a few options. Hopefully some of you more-knowledgeable-than-me people can weigh in on what would be best for this situation.

I've been told that, while very rare, some people still have taps and pullers for French cranks. I'm assuming that the French cranks have larger holes and that's why tapping and pulling might be effective. There are quite a few specialty stores where I live, so I'll make a few calls and hopefully one of them would have one.

I also read on the ParkTool website that it's sometimes possible to get a crank off by removing the bolt and riding the hell out of it. Does anyone have experience with this?

I'm also thinking of removing the fixed cup and trying to punch the spindle out with a hammer.

Lastly I've read that it's possible to cut the crank off. This seems like the most fail proof way, so if anyone has any advise on how to do this one in particular I'd really appreciate it.

I've showed the bike to a trusted mechanic and he doesn't think anything that wedges behind the crank arm (a gear puller?) is going to fit.

Thanks in advance for your help


p.s. Needless to say, I don't care about saving the cranks. I'm willing to kill the BB as well if that's what's necessary - I really like this frame).

peabodypride

Hacksaw to the spindle if there is any small gap between BB shell and crank.

Your BB shell has the removable cup on the left side??

rjacob

If you don't care about the cranks, use a dremel tool with a cutting disk, and cut through crank to release it from the spindle.

vpiuva

I would try riding around with it first. Sounds like it will be some good one-legged training exercises.

BTW. Older cranksets often required longer spindles than more modern units. You found this out the hard way.

Punching the spindle out with a hammer could bugger up the BB shell threads on the NDS. I wouldn't do this one.

n0dice

Thanks for your suggestions everybody.

peabodypride

There is not enough of a gap to saw the spindle off. With regards to my bb, the adjustable (which I'm assuming is the same as removable) cup with the lockring is on the non-drive side. Perhaps I don't understand something though.

rjacob

This looks like the best (and coolest) solution. I'll swing by the hardwares store tomorrow. I don't really care, but it would be nice to save the bb if possible. Are spindles made of steel? If so, will it be possible to keep the spindle intact? Also, because of the crank being so close to the bb, I'm wondering if it will be possible to cut the last little bit of crank near the bb with a round tool. Lastly, should a dremmel kit have what I need or should I look for a particular blade or something?

vpiuva

Thanks for the advice re: bb threads. Scratch that one of the list. i'll give riding it a shot after it stops pouring.


Thanks again

peabodypride

The cups will be fine but your spindle will probably be toast.

My other thought was to get the right size and material drill bit and just drill the spindle to smitherines.

The dremel job will certainly work but I'd just be cautious of marring the frame.

edit: get a tube of the solid cutting wheels; I think they're black. Don't be surprised to go through 3-4-5+ though!!

HDFACTORYCERTIF

With an air grinder and a 4" abrasive cut off wheel, the left crank arm will be lying on the ground in 5min.

Don

rjacob

My Dremel kit came with a stack of the cutting disks. You will probably need multiples to get through the crank. WEAR EYE PROTECTION!!! Those things tend to break, and go flying. Just try to keep the disk straight. Once you get a cut on the one side, you should be able to pry the cut open enough to slide the crank off. You probably don't need to cut all the way through the crank. Most of the way through will probably be enough to pry it open enough to slide it off. If cutting on one side doesn't so it, do another cut on another side.
The spindle is most likely steel. It will probably be okay. Just be careful not to cut down into the spindle.

tellyho

There have been a couple threads on this in the past year. There are 3-4 methods. Do a search and the original authors will describe them much better than I will be able to.