I’ve been commuting via bike for the past 3 days and my crank has became loose everyday. It looks like it could be slightly crooked on the BB. Could that be causing it getting loose? Do I need to undo the crank and put it back on again?
Thanks for the help!
by AboveTheNorm
4 Comments
Square taper that you didn’t torque properly. Toss the cranks now or risk breaking the axle permanently.
Do not continue to ride this!
Do not skip the torque wrench the 2nd time around.
Cheap cranks can also cause this.
I had this happen to me with cheap cranks. Once the female square taper on the crank wallows out it’ll never pull tight again.
Replace cranks.
You can just replace the crank arm if money is tight, just be sure to get the correct one. Unless that’s a fancy old Italian crankarm (it’s not) there’s two options for fitment, the hole will either be oriented as a diamond or a square. The length you need should be on the back of the crank arm, it’s likely a 175. Crank it down nice and tight, grease only on bolt threads (arguably lol). If you don’t want to invest in tools most shops should be able to fix it in 5 or 10 minutes and probably have the crankarm you need on hand.
Hey everyone! Thank you so much for the advice. I removed the cranks and the crank is destroyed.
I’m unsure if this was due to me installing it, or if it was already like that (this bike was dumped in my works alley and I decided to fix it up).
Any other tips on how to avoid this from happening again, please let me know. Thanks!
https://preview.redd.it/567qr50gnjid1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=529d261491dcbaafbdb329f279ad9ae91188454a