Q: Installing Splined Cranks

I'm building up a bike for someone who impressively split his rear dropout on a steel LandShark
frame. He has decided to retire the Shark and has thus purchased a nice titanium frame.

I'm moving the 9 speed Dura Ace group over to the new bike. This is my first encounter with
splined cranks.

The question: how much force do I put on the self-extracting Allen bolts? I know that with
traditional tapered cranks, the answer (in the absence of a torque wrench) is "pretty damn hard"
with an eight-inch Crescent wrench on the standard extraction tool, or "until the edge starts
painfully cutting into your hand" with one of those 14/15/16 combo guys that I think are termed
"peanut butter" wrenches.

Is "pretty damn hard" appropriate for the Dura Ace? I'm using an eight-inch ratchet with the 7 (?)
mm. Allen fitting, simply because I don't seem to have a traditional Allen wrench of that size.

Art

Art Temporary usercode - to be deleted when spam starts. Use MyBrainHurts at this ISP to reach me

 

"Arthur L. Shapiro" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I'm building up a bike for someone who impressively split his rear dropout on a steel LandShark
> frame. He has decided to retire the Shark and has thus purchased a nice titanium frame.
>
> I'm moving the 9 speed Dura Ace group over to the new bike. This is my first encounter with
> splined cranks.
>
> The question: how much force do I put on the self-extracting Allen bolts? I know that with
> traditional tapered cranks, the answer (in the absence of a torque wrench) is "pretty damn hard"
> with an eight-inch Crescent wrench on the standard extraction tool, or "until the edge starts
> painfully cutting into your hand" with one of those 14/15/16 combo guys that I think are termed
> "peanut butter" wrenches.
>
> Is "pretty damn hard" appropriate for the Dura Ace? I'm using an eight-inch ratchet with the 7 (?)
> mm. Allen fitting, simply because I don't seem to have a traditional Allen wrench of that size.

Shimano says 34.3 - 44.1 Nm and that converts to 305 - 391 inch pounds for regular cranks and 35 -
50Nm (305 - 435 inch pounds) for hollow arms. This is high and you probably need something longer
than an 8" lever.

Phil Holman

 

"Arthur L. Shapiro" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I'm building up a bike for someone who impressively split his rear dropout on a steel LandShark
> frame. He has decided to retire the Shark and has thus purchased a nice titanium frame.
>
> I'm moving the 9 speed Dura Ace group over to the new bike. This is my first encounter with
> splined cranks.
>
> The question: how much force do I put on the self-extracting Allen bolts? I know that with
> traditional tapered cranks, the answer (in the absence of a torque wrench) is "pretty damn hard"
> with an eight-inch Crescent wrench on the standard extraction tool, or "until the edge starts
> painfully cutting into your hand" with one of those 14/15/16 combo guys that I think are termed
> "peanut butter" wrenches.
>
> Is "pretty damn hard" appropriate for the Dura Ace? I'm using an eight-inch ratchet with the 7 (?)
> mm. Allen fitting, simply because I don't seem to have a traditional Allen wrench of that size.
>
> Art
>
Why don't you go to Sears and buy their $25.00 torque wrench? If you're putting a bike together
without one, I dunno. The necessary 25ft lb~36ft lb is "damned hard", but it's a precise "damned
hard". And don't feed me the stuff about 'two clicks of the elbow', you should do better than that.

 

"Arthur L. Shapiro" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I'm building up a bike for someone who impressively split his rear dropout on a steel LandShark
> frame. He has decided to retire the Shark and has thus purchased a nice titanium frame.
>
> I'm moving the 9 speed Dura Ace group over to the new bike. This is my first encounter with
> splined cranks.
>
> The question: how much force do I put on the self-extracting Allen bolts? I know that with
> traditional tapered cranks, the answer (in the absence of a torque wrench) is "pretty damn hard"
> with an eight-inch Crescent wrench on the standard extraction tool, or "until the edge starts
> painfully cutting into your hand" with one of those 14/15/16 combo guys that I think are termed
> "peanut butter" wrenches.
>
> Is "pretty damn hard" appropriate for the Dura Ace? I'm using an eight-inch ratchet with the 7 (?)
> mm. Allen fitting, simply because I don't seem to have a traditional Allen wrench of that size.
>
I heard someone saying something to the effect that you can crunch down on the splined cranks as
hard as you like 'cause they're not going to break. I've modified this to be "German Torque" is good
enough for me.

If you want to be anal about this, then I'd say get the torque wrench. If not, then crank down on it
till it is tight like a square taper (and maybe a little more) and you should be OK.

Mike

 

Mike S. wrote:

> I heard someone saying something to the effect that you can crunch down on the splined cranks as
> hard as you like 'cause they're not going to break. I've modified this to be "German Torque" is
> good enough for me.
>
> If you want to be anal about this, then I'd say get the torque wrench. If not, then crank down on
> it till it is tight like a square taper (and maybe a little more) and you should be OK.
II just installed D-A cranks with a torque wrench and I was amazed how much power I needed to fasten
them to the lowest recommended torque. You REALLY need some strength here! MAybe someone at a garage
will let you use their torque wrench for a few minutes?

Greets, Derk