Miyata110

So I'm working on talking apart my first bike ('72 Raleigh Gran Sport) and have it nearly complete. My last task was to take the cranks and chain ring off but the dust cap on the left side is apparently stripped. The right side came off fine using a small allen wrench, but when I tried the left side it looks more like a circle than a hexagon and the wrench just spins.

I'm hoping someone has some neat trick I can use to remedy my problem before I resort to my usual "try everything until something works" approach, which usually just makes things worse.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

cyclist2000

use a cutting head on a dermal tool and cut a slot into the dust cap. then use a screwdriver to remove.

DOS

The metal may be soft enough that you don't even need a dremel. Use a flat head screw driver with a head just a bit bigger that the whole. Tap the screw driver until it just penetrates into the edges of the ronded opening and turn. The dust cap shouldn't be very tight so it shouldn't take much to turn it out. I had a very soft stripped torx head crank bolt that this method worked on and that was in tight.

hueyhoolihan

if the cap is plastic i wouldn't worry about destroying it. chances are it is already in a condition unsuitable for reuse. now that i think about it, the same goes for an alloy one, except getting it out may be more difficult.

in either case i would probably jam in the business end of a pair of needlenose pliers (because they present a pointed cone to the hole), then grab them with a vicegrip as close to the crank as i could.

the post above would probably work just as well, maybe better. it's just that i broke my BFS just the other day...

Miyata110

The caps are alloy and this method worked great. Thank you so much DOS!