I am struggling to get the cranks out of my frame. They are Truvativ Powerspline. I have the frame stripped down except for crank and bottom brackets. When I look at the side, there is a 7mm socket with a plastic cap surrounding it.

I have wrenched on the socket with my hex keys until my hands hurt. I want to make sure that I am turning the right direction (counter-clockwise to loosen on both sides). Can anybody confirm this? These are the outside bolts that are exposed normally.

I have tried tapping the hex key with a hammer. I have pried out one of the plastic caps and filled the space with oil. I am letting it sit right now. Any other suggestion? Should I just pull until my hex key snaps?

The last time these were off was about a year ago when a guy at a bike shop took a look at the BB. He didn't seem to have any huge amount of trouble with them, but I didn't watch closely.

Truvativ powerspline only tells you what crank interface it uses. We need to know what crank it is, in particular if it uses (7mm is very uncommon) an 8mm self extract, or just a plain old 8mm hex bolt. You can take a picture of it and we can tell which one it is. Once you are sure you are using the right size hex key, minimize the angle between the handle and the crank - and then use some elbow grease.

Hope it's not seized too badly.

Well it could be 8mm I suppose, but either way, the hex key I am using fits it perfectly. Is counter clockwise definitely correct? I am going to go find a larger wrench to set over my hex key and put some more torque on it.

you might want to pick a 3/8" drive socket with the correct size allen. it also would be handy when you replace the crank to the correct torque spec.

Let me reiterate this. 99.9999% of the crank bolts out there are going to be 8mm. 7mm may show up on a rare campy crank. If you're using a 7mm wrench and you strip out that crank bolt, you just created a whole bigger nastier problem.

And yes it is 100% counter clockwise.

Hah got it! I feel like a million bucks. I finally thought to get some more leverage by sticking my seat tube over the end of the hex key. One foot on the opposite crank arm and most of my weight on the seat tube broke it loose.

And here is what I found underneath. A good reason to have a dedicated winter bike.