My LBS was building my ultimate arctic municycle, they put the profile cranks onto the profile hub, and realized it needed another spacer or two. But they couldn’t get the cranks back off.
When I called them up, they asked me to come down and check the directions for the hub. (Profile hub directions are in English, and I’m an American living in the far north of Sweden.)
Anyway, we screwed in the crank extraction tool and smacked it rather hard with a rubber hammer for about half an hour. The cranks didn’t move at all. I hit it hard enough that I thought the rubber hammer would have permanent marks, but still nothing.
I’d like to add more spacers to both cranks, but I can’t get the cranks off, any advice or ideas? The uni rides just fine today, but I’d rather have the bearings firmly pressed between the cranks and hub, is that unnecessary?
yeah, you dont want to ride on it if the bearings are not tight in there, thats just going to cause slop and alot of bearing wear.
use a bearing puller on the crank arm. put it right behind the weld on the Profile crank. some pullers are better than others but the right one can make the job really easy.
The instructions that come with the hub are not for the unicycle hub, and really should not be included with it. They are for a bicycle setup with a floating spindle, where it is a trivial matter to press the spindle out the other side.
Smacking on the spindle with a mallet (as instructed ) will not be very effective since the hub shell is pressed on with a huge hydraulic press. If you had been successful, you would have compromised the shell-axle connection. In older models, this was possible, but for about a year now the hub shell has been made with different dimensions that make the connection extremely tight.
If you did compromise the hub in some way by following those instructions, you might have some leverage with Profile.
The proper way to remove the crank is with the bearing puller, as mentioned by GB and Jag.
It can be very difficult to remove Profile cranks when they are new and haven’t been used yet. Once they get used the splines wear down and the cranks get to be much easier to remove.
Here’s a past thread that has pictures of how the Evercraft tool can be used to pull off the Profile cranks: Profile maintenance
When you put the cranks back on be sure to get anti-seize worked all the way into the splines on the hub and crank. That will make it easier to get the cranks back on and easier to get them off next time.
The easiest (and cheapest) way I have found to remove the Profile cranks:
Get a flathead screwdriver.
Lightly tap it on the inside of the crank (to drive the screwdriver to the axle).
The crank will move away from the hub and let the screwdriver in.
Twist the screwdriver (which will widen the gap).
From there, it’s easy.
(Do this lightly enough, and there will be no damage)
if we are talking on the cheap, then i have done it by useing a wood dowel inserted from the oposite side of the wheel (through the spokes) to the back of the crank arm and then banged the dowel with a mallet.
that will push it off most of the time but i only did that before i bought a crank puller.
I got a new Muni about 6 mos ago and changed out the 170 crank arms for 165s and getting the old ones off was accomplished via Jaguar´s method, except I had to use a metal rod and beat on the thing for a long time. Wish I had a bearning remover. Got to get one.
Those new Profiles are a bear, greatly complicated by my impatience and lack of mechanical savy.
that post was on my work PC where i have to log in for every post like this this one. unfortunatly i have to see your posts at work,like now. in 30 minutes i’ll be home so i wont.
) will not be very effective since the hub shell is pressed on with a huge hydraulic press. If you had been successful, you would have compromised the shell-axle connection. In older models, this was possible, but for about a year now the hub shell has been made with different dimensions that make the connection extremely tight.