Crank Removal Tool
Why did I do a review of this particular crank removal tool? If you have a look at the one used in this article, you will notice that this tool has one major difference.
It is this difference that can cause some serious damage and result in stripping the thread out of a crank arm. Once the thread is sttripped it makes it impossible for the crank removal tool to remove the crank arm.
Crank Removal Tool.
I discovered this by inserting the above pictured crank removal tool into my Shimano crank and tightening it up as far as possible. I then proceeded to wind the outer bolt which in theory should extract the crank arm from the bottom bracket. Not in this case. The entire tool came out and ripped out the first three lines of the thread in the crank arm.
On some cranks remove the end part first.
The reason was that the removable part shown in the above photograph did not allow the tool to thread all the way in and use all of the thread in the crank arm. Once I removed the end part, I was lucky in that I was able to rethread the tool all of the way in so that it was using all of the thread. The crank came off easily then.
The secret with using a tool with this type of fitting is to take the end off and insert it into the crank bolt hole and see if it goes all of the way in to reach the bottom bracket spindle. If it does then it is safe to use. If not then leave it off and the tool will still work.
When winding the tool into the crank, make sure you back the outer bolt all of the way out first and then wind the tool into as much thread on the crank as you can. Then slowly start winding the outer bolt in until the crank arm starts to move outwards.
