It's Sunday evening and I've been working on my bike all day. After selling my remaining screen printing equipment Saturday morning, I ran down to my local LBS and picked up a Park Tool crank puller. The other tools I wanted weren't available so they were placed on order. Around noon on Sunday, I couldn't stand it anymore, I decided to remove the crank arms and attempt to remove the bottom bracket with whatever I had on hand.
With all my screen printing equipment gone I decided to do my wife a favor and move the bikes out to the garage. It gets a little warm in the garage but It's nice to have space to work.
I guess this is how most people remove dust caps.
The new Park Tool crank puller I bought is on the right. The old piece of garbage "Spin Doctor" crank extractor is on the left. The last time I used it, the bolt that attaches the wrench portion of the tool to the piece that does the extraction, rounded the edges of the hole allowing the wrench to spin uselessly. Notice the weld on the back of the Park Tool. It's worth spending a little more for quality tools.
The non-drive side crank came off easily. This side took some effort.
Success! Note the leaves, hair, and other junk on the spindle.
Non-drive side
I decided to use some unconventional methods to remove the bottom bracket. My pipe wrench is proving to be very useful tool. The teeth on the wrench easily grasped the knurled edges of the lockring. I had the lockring off in no time.
I used a 16mm cone wrench and a crescent wrench to remove this part.
This is what I discovered when I finally took things apart. There was no lubrication left, just lots of little black, round, granules.
I used a headset wrench to remove this part.
I dumped everything in some Simple Green and let it soak for a while. I then scrubbed everything with an old tooth brush.
Next, I soaked and cleaned the chain.
Since my hands were greasy, I didn't want to touch my camera, so I don't have any photos of the reassembly. Everythng went back easily. Things were going great until I tried installing the chain. No matter what I tried I couldn't get the pin to line up properly with the hole it belonged in. I'll deal with the chain tomorrow. At least the cranks roll smoothly now.
