I feel like such a novice asking this question, but has anyone ever encountered this problem?:

You've bought a great old bike. You strip it for cleaning/rebuilding, and when you're re fitting the the bike with it's crankset, somehow the diameter of the crank bolts plus the diameter of your socket wrench is far too much for the small-holed cranks to accept - so you try every socket wrench variation you have before getting irritated and heading to your hardware store, only to be further frustrated as you can't find anything to help your situation.

I've replaced cranksets a number of times, and I can't tell if the crank bolts I received are too large or perhaps I'm just missing "the perfect tool" in my case.

FWIW, it's this crankset and these crank bolts: 15mm Campy bolts, 165mm Pista cranks.



Any advice, simple and obvious as it may be, will be appreciated.

I've had that problem with old Stronglight 16mm bolts, but not with 15mm. At any rate, a peanut-butter/crank-bolt wrench is the right tool for the job as the walls are thin. Alternatively, if you have access to a grinding wheel, you can remove some material from the outside of a 15mm socket. I did that successfully with a 16mm socket.

Neal

Craftsman sockets. Use them.

The Campy peanut butter wrench is the only one that universally fits campy and other cranks. I even have a TA crankbolt wrench that doesn't fit some Campy cranks. I had a 15mm socket that sometimes fit, but I broke it.

Ugh. I just googled "peanut butter wrench" in order to find out the specialized tool costs an arm and a leg.

I despise spending so much on a single piece of equipment...

You need to look for a thin-wall socket. I have a collection of Snap-On 3/8" drive 14-15-16mm 6-point sockets I bought a long time ago for this task. The walls of high-quality sockets are usually thinner than those found on cheaper sockets made from weaker steel.

Local hardware stores usually have low-end stuff. Look for your local Snap-On distributor, or for a place that stocks stuff from SK or another quality manufacturer. Sears changes their Craftsman manufacturers frequently, so it's hard to say if one from them will fit. A local auto mechanic might let you try his set of sockets to see if something will fit.

I just use the 14/15mm socket that came with my cheap-o Nashbar rebranded Lifu crank tool.

As I see you have the Pista cranks, I must recommend the peanut butter wrench. It is ideal for track nuts as well, and can be stuffed in a saddle bag.

See post #3.

Outside outfitters has the Campy peanut butter wrench on sale: https://www.outsideoutfitters.com/p-9...er-wrench.aspx. At sale price of $30, it's still pricey for a small wrench. The one I use on my campy cranks is made by Sugino. If you can find a Sugino crank bolt wrench, it might be less expensive.

There's a pawn shop around the corner I frequent for all my "spare wrench" needs. After digging around in a big tub full of sockets for ten minutes on a late lunch break, I had 4 or 5 15mm sockets. This older Craftsman "Made in the USA" was the most slimmest of the lot. Paid four quarters and left.

At $29 less than a peanut butter wrench and $11.95 less than a Snap-On socket, we'll see if this does the trick...

My Craftsman 3/8" drive socket fits. No need to buy overpriced specialty bike tools.

with a caveat: the outer diameter has to be 22mm or less, otherwise it will not fit in the crank. I had a 15mm Sugino crank I was fighting with and decided to buy an ice tools 14/15mm compact crank puller from Amazon (about $8 with free shipping if order more than $25) because the sockets in my local hardware stores either were bigger than 22mm outside diameter, or I had to buy a whole set (and I do have a whole set of sockets, but they are thicker). Now I need a 16mm to work on a Stronglight, and I will probably go the Craftsman way online ordering a single one (and paying hey for shipping; but I got to dish $45 for the crankpuller anyways, so...)

peanut butter wrench?

that is one tool I wish I had bought, along with the Campagnolo T-wrench with an 8mm socket and 6mm allen. Park used to sell a tool that had a 14mm, 15mm and 16mm socket for crank bolts. That was what we had in the shop I worked in alongside the peanut butter wrench. I was really surprised that 15mm crank bolts are so obsolete, I went looking for the old Park tool a year ago and was disappointed. I replaced the 15mm bolts with 14mm bolts on my non-campy cranks.

peanut butter wrench?

If so, then I should be in luck. I just measured the one I picked up for $1 at the Pawn, and it looks to be under 2.2cm.

Crappy webcam photo ftw:

I had the same issue and could not find ANY socket and any price that would fit - so I bought an extra socket from the Auto parts store and turned down the O.D.

Looks like you are gold!

I am going to hit the yard sales tomorrow and look for one of those in 16mm

I know, it's the ideal tool...I just can't bear to part with $30 for it - at least until I've tried a few other options.

Full disclosure: I'm somewhat decided on spending a load of cash on one of THESE at some point (for other projects). Thus, I'm pursuing cheaper alternatives to solve this predicament, at least for the time being.

I'm going to have a tool purge in the for sale section here once I sort out my duplicates; but in light of this thread I have a dual sided "cyclepro" crankwrench if anyone is interested. 14mm/15mm on one side, and a 15mm pedal wrench on the other end.

I have the same crank puller, BTW the ice tools socket is a standard 3/8th's drive, so I just pop a short extender on my regular socket wrench add the crank socket and away I go. I can get a lot more positive grip then monkeying with the crank puller and an adjustable wrench.

For future reference, or in case what you got doesn't work, I just grabbed my digital caliper and checked the OD of my 15mm Snap-On, SK, GearWrench (Pass-Thru), and Craftsman (etched label) 3/8" sockets. All are well under 21 mm in diameter. They range from around 20.4 to 20.7 mm. All are 6-point sockets.

All of these makers, by the way, have the now-prevalent design that puts the contact point of the socket well past the tip of the hex bolt head. The Campy wrenches don't have that design feature. Snap-On originated that "flank drive" feature, I believe, and it's now found on most quality sockets. Here's a picture of a large Snap-on socket that shows it well.


Of the four I have, the SK has the smallest diameter, but not by much.


Good luck!

"The Campy wrenches don't have that design feature"

Yes but can your wrench make a peanut butter sandwich? I thought so!

I got an adjustable wrench with a a foot-and-a-half long handle (think pedal wrench). You cannot beat that for torque And in my experience I have not seen a crank bolt that was really that much stuck. Pedals are a totally different story...

So no one else here just uses the crank puller socket? Too simple?