Creakin in the crank arm

Unicycles and Equipment
1

Hey everyone I have to questions…

  1. I just noticed my crankarm started getting loose and it started creaking, is that normal?

  2. When your putting on the crank arm do you just push it on and thats far enough or do you have to hit it a little to make it go further?

Thanks- Brian

2

I assume you are talking about a cotterless crank. Usually the action of screwing the nut onto the bolt draws the crank in toward the center of the hub. If your cranks are old it may just be that they are worn.

After a while the squared-ness of the cranks(sometimes the hub too) wears away and they squeak and eventually move no matter how tight they are.

3

Ya i think im talkin about cotterless crank arms i guess.

I have this uni http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=629 so i think it has cotterless crank arms what is the other type if they arent cotterless?

4

If they arent cotterless they are cottered(obselete and never used anymore) and splined as seen here . splined hubs push on to those little ridges instead of screwing on. If your cranks are only squeaking I wouldn’t worry about it yet. If they wobble when you ride, tightne them. If they still wobble, buy new cranks.

5

If your crank is loose you should stop riding immediately!

Riding with a loose crank will wreck the axle where it connects with the crank.

There’s been a few posts telling how to get the crank on properly so it’s worth doing a search.

Greasing the axle is generally recomended as this enables the crank to be pushed on further.

This is how I do my cranks (I’m assuming that you’ve got a square end on the axle, if it’s splined I don’t know if the following is relevant): -

  1. grease the axle (I use vasaline)

  2. put on the crank and, using wood blocks and a towel where the axle contacts the floor and on the other end of the axle to protect it; use a hammer to ensure the crank is pushed well onto the axle. If you have a wooden mallet, even better. Do be careful when hammering, make sure the axle is vertical, well protected and that the wheel isn’t contacting the ground.

  3. put on the bolt and fully tighten it.

  4. For the next few days don’t go riding with out the socket wrench, so, if you feel it come loose you can tighten it immediately.

as long as you follow point 4, you can err on the side of caution when hammering and tightening, as, if it does come loose you can immediately tighten it and ride home to follow the sequence again.

But I really have to emphasise that riding with a loose crank is a very bad idea.

On every unicycle I’ve had the left crank has come loose, doing the above has cured it every time.