I'm shamed to admit that I finally had to wrap my peanut butter wrench with handlebar tape to soften the edge for my old hands.

Bike Warehouse/Nashbar crank extractor. Generic, however it works and has for decades.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...397524ec01.png

Yep, probably that too. ;)

Are there no plumbers on the forum? The Merzac method is what I was shown when I was helping out on a project that involved galvanized pipe..
Never thought of applying it to cranks, but I will next time I remove a crank.

Not galvanized but always adds needed leverage when needed and or necessary. ;)

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...56abb45a9e.jpg



https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f0f792409c.jpg

I've been using a cheap, Bike Hand crank extractor which came with their tool kit, which I got on Amazon for $30. I've pulled a number of cranks with it. The trick is often more about technique than the quality of the tool. Thread it in carefully, make sure that it goes in deeply enough to get a good bite on the threads, and make sure to keep your tools aligned when applying pressure.

That's almost half as long as the breaker bar I used to use to remove axle nuts from old VW bugs. Life was much easier after my shop invested in a 1" impact wrench.

I was thinking about threaded pipe, as shown in this photo from a search for “pipe wrench use” , but I certainly can’t dispute that you’ve got some leverage with what you’re using
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1cf1f3f52.jpeg

I volunteer at a co-op where we allow extraordinarily incompetent people to use our tools. The Park crank extractors with the handles get destroyed almost as quickly as chain breakers. The points of failure seem to be that the handle gets bent or the wrench-like part of the handle gets reamed out by applying too much leverage, or the extractor threads get turned to mush.

The threads on extractors without handles don't seem to get destroyed as quickly, but maybe it's because the less competent people don't use them (or even recognize what they are).

I personally have had better luck using the ones without handles, but maybe it's because they haven't been abused as much.

No shame, homie... We've all been there.
And if we haven't, we've thought about it.
And we all know where we're going to end up anyway. (Now, about that handbasket...)

--Shannon

I'm going in a hat box.

The Saga Continues...

So you see, what had happened was that I'm an idiot.

It turns out that the puller that came with my $100 Amazon tool kit does not, in fact, completely suck. What it does do is try to be two tools at once. Those tools being a square taper and an Octalink V1 crank puller. They way it does this is by having a little insert at the end of the screw that bears on the spindle end.

It turns out that if you're a moron like me, and you leave this little adapter on, the tool bears on the edges of the crankarm right next to the square hole instead passing through it to the end of the spindle. And, since there's way, way more aluminum in the casting than there is in the threads, the threads lose.

I was trying to tighten the loose cups on the threadless BB I'd installed the other day, for which job the crankset must be removed. And so, armed with fear, trepidation, grease, and the merziac Multiwrench Method, I hoisted the PPPKN-10 into the stand.
Removed the pedals, dust cap, and crank bolt from the left side of the bicycle.
Cleaned and greased every thread in sight. Including some not on the bike. Puller threads? Greased. Crankarm threads? Greased. Puller plunger threads? Greased? Lid on the jar of weed next to my living room listening chair? Hell, why not. Grease those too.

Screw puller into crankarm. It goes all the way in without tools.
Screw plunger inward until it stops.
Snug everything up with the wrench.
Apply two-wrench force to extractor.
Nothing moves. Not the extractor. (Good.) Not the crankarm. (Bad.)
Pause and ponder, rather than my previous choice at this point: brute force & ignorance.
Check fit of tool to old SR Sakae crankarm. Hmmm. Plunger tip doesn't fit through the hole.
Double-check box insert. Discover Octalink tip thing. Remove tip.
Refit tool to crank. After recleaning and regreasing everything. Again.
Apply gentle-but-steadily-increasing force to both wrenches.
Feel ever-so-slight, almost-imperceptible movement.
Stop.
Check tool alignment. Still straight and squared up to the crankarm.
Calm self.
Apply slightly-less-gentle-but-steadily-increasing force to both wrenches. Again.
Feel ever-so-slight, almost-imperceptible movement. Again.
Calm self.
Apply even-less-gentle-but-steadily-increasing force to both wrenches. Again.
Crankarm slides smoothly off of bottom bracket.

Repeat process on drive side of bicycle. "Repeat" very much to include the aforementioned fear and trepidation.

At this point, a feeling of pleased success, tempered by "you friggin' dumbarse" washed over me.

So, two crankarms, 70 bucks in tools, three bottom brackets, and a week and a half's searing frustration, all because I thought that a new tool worked like every other version of itself. Remember kids, "assumption is the mother of all screwups." (Much better than that stupid one about the letter "u", IMNSHO.)

And, more generally, it's often better for similar-but-not-the-same things to be very different than for them to be almost the same. Be really careful around the latter... they bite.

--Shannon

PS - Of course, I'm going to have to do this all over again once I get paid, 'cuz the BB's too long. I don't count that against the cost of my screwup... I was guessing anyway.

Sounds like you done good, no more carnage, process, understanding, patience, skill and confidence bolstered, win, win. :thumb:

I don't normally grease the crank arm threads but make damn sure they are clean and correct for the puller which with Frenchy chaos is challenging and grease can help the puller strip and pull out IME.

Many of them have been mangled by the wrong puller and old soft cranks are prime for being effed already and many are.

Between Stronglight and TA being so close, many think the tool is the same, I usually inspect the threads with a good magnifying glass and scribe them clean with a right angle pick to make sure they will hold and then make sure the puller is very snug also as a test to hopefully make sure it will hold.

As long as I get where I'm going.....

FWIW +1 on the two wrench method.

Tx man. ;)

The best folks will be there.

The bike mechanic that hasn't screwed up doesn't exist. What's rare is actually learning. Bravo!

I have both Campagnolo and Sugino crank pullers for the "standard" cranks, plus a T.A. and (I think from Stein) a Stronglight one. The Campy and Stronglight ones both have a captured bushing on the "push" end (which the others don't have) so that it doesn't grind against the spindle end in applying the pressure. A nice touch, IMO.

And, given that tools are usually steel and bike parts are usually aluminum, and also given that bike parts are usually more expensive than tools, guess which one you're gonna to ruin?

Blessed be Murphy and His Law.
Blessed be the coming and going of Him. (To the workstands of others.)
May his Passage cleanse the world...
Of the screwups of others, that we might learn, and, in learning, be saved.

--Shannon

Does it change the taste of the peanut butter?

Happy to read this. Lucky for me it is the tool that is ruined and the parts left over could be used in the octalink remover.