I have a pair of stronglight cranks, so they are french threaded, and i in fact had access to the right tool from my local bike shop, but i guess before i got the bike someone took the cranks off wrong and threaded them. so the right crank puller would not even get them off. i have tried riding around with the crank bolt taken out and have not managed to get the right arm off after riding around for almost 100 miles. right now i am at a loss. i dont know what else i can do to get them off relatively safely without damaging my BB. I do not care about the cranks and would not shed a a single tear if they broke or were ruined as long as i successfully get them off. I would like to do this without ruining my BB. I have read about a tool that can fix the threads, but i dont think that exists, or atleast for french threads. If anyone has any ideas on how to get my cranks off without hurting the bottom bracket, they would be appreciated. thanks

"Pickle fork" ball joint remover.

How about a gear puller

I hear that all the time but I've never been able to make one work. Cranks usually have 5 arms so a 2,3, or 4 arm gear puller never fits right.

Well I thought that he didn't care if the crank was reusable or not so it could grab the chain ring anywhere, also the old stronglight crank had 6 arms, at least the one that I had did.

thanks for the ideas. i may try a gear puller. and my crank has 3 arms btw.

Here's the tool of choice, a pair of Jacobs chuck removal wedges. (see illustration "C") They're relatively cheap and I've used them dozens of times with 100% success. Gently tapping them in behind the crank removes ir so well you'll be tempted to reuse the crank with the wedges as the Plan A system for removal.

huh. these look very promising. but are the slits in the wedges wide enough to fit a taper spindle?
its a great idea though. best i have heard so far

They come in a variety of sizes to fit chucks and spindles of various sizes. The size you need has a 5/8" inside width, and is for either a #3JT or 4JT chuck (sorry I forgot which).

okay. thanks for the info. i found the removal wedges. in 3JT and then 6JT. so i need the 3JT?

Mine are over 20 years old, and not marked. #3 sounds right but you might ask about the width of the slot before buying.

If the extractor threads are OK, they use a different crank extractor tool size,
than TA, which is different itself from Shimano, etc. larger than the other 2.

maybe your LBS has the tool.

I am confused. A picture is worth a thousand words and avoids more assumptions. Is the crank steel? I don't know of a 3 arm aluminum ds crank arm. I would not mind being educated.

I had a similar issue last summer with a pair of Ofmega cranks. I used a harbour freight gear puller and few wrenches placed across the spider to remove it.

I agree with SJX perhaps we need a few pics just to be sure we are all talking about the same thing. it seems to me you are saying the threads where the dust cap and crank puller goes are stripped out yes? also as Fiestbob says are yu sure you have the right tool? some of these guys know by sight wich of the three (3) tools you need.

these are the cranks i have. 3 arms. and they are french threaded. so that means you need a 23mm crank puller to take them off and not a 22mm like most are now. and the threads on the cranks are pretty much non existent now.