Siezed crank bolt

wishitwasallflat

Hi,

I need to replace the BB on my Spesh Secteur Elite Apex 2011 - the cranks are SRAM/Truvativ Power Spline and I can't get the drive side crank off to get at the BB (non drive side was fine). On the Truvativ docs that came with the bike (one for crankset and one for BB) it is very very clearly marked that the BB is reverse threaded on the drive side (i.e. CW to loosen) but nothing like that on the doc for the crankset. The crankset doc actually flags up that the pedal spindle is reverse thread on the drive side but says nothing at all about the crank bolt - both bolts appear on the doc with no comments at all about threading.The crank bolts are M8 hex heads and once they are off a normal crank extractor removes the crank like on a square taper BB.

At the moment the bike is on it's side with a pool of WD40 over the drive side crank bolt (but its just sitting there in a pool so I am not so hopeful that it will sink in to the threads). I have tried hitting the hex key with a hammer but its not budging - seems a long shot but does any one know if perhaps the drive side crank bolt is reverse threaded and they just don't tell you in the docs?

Thanks in advance for any help *(trying to avoid £50 lbs bill!!).

Monty Dog

Crank retainer bolts are normally righthand threaded - you'd have to go back a few years to find some that weren't.

sungod

with the splined fitting i think there's no need for reverse thread on the bolt, it should just be normal thread

wd40 isn't the greatest for penetrating, if things stay stuck, try plusgas

if the axle is aluminium you could use a hairdryer to heat the area - the al will expand more than the steel bolt, which may then loosen

wishitwasallflat

Thanks MontyDog and Sungod - after much effort it moved and job is complete !!

For anyone searching in future who retrieves this thread (as these wise gents both said) both Power Spline crankbolts are standard thread (they just get very tight if you leave them for 5k miles from new before you try to move them!).

bernithebiker

Often in cases like this, slip a tube over your allen key to double it's length. It's surprising how well that works, and it's much better than whacking the allen key with a lump hammer!