I decided to install longer cranks on my QU-AX Profi, which comes with an Isis hub. I used my Park ISIS crank removal tool and removed both cranks fairly easily.
The predicament is, on the right-hand side of the hub there appears to be something stuck inside the hub, where the crank bolt would normally thread into. I’ve attached pictures, but I have no idea how the original crank bolt was threaded in here to begin with.
I removed it like I’ve removed all bicycle cranks over the years; I removed the crank bolts, threaded the crank remover into the socket in the crank, tightened it, and then cranked the internal bolt into the removal tool to force the crank arm off of the isis spline.
It worked fine, but when I went to thread the new crank arms into place I noticed that I couldn’t get any thread engagement on the right-hand side, and then noticed this barrel of black metal inside the thread housing. It won’t come out and I have no idea where it came from.
Is it possible that the tip of my crank removal tool broke off into the crank arm? Any other theories? Is there something strange about QU-AX Isis hubs? Should I try a bolt extractor or something? Any other ideas for how to fix this?
If you used the CWP-7 then it looks like you had the square taper end on it and you’ve pushed that into the axle threads.
If you remove the bolt from the other side of the hub, you may be able to press/tap this end out from the other side.
Hopefully it’s not damaged the threads too much.
A screw extractor is likely your best bet, but there’s also a device called an inside pipe wrench. It might also work and first off Id try the simple method of just cramming a flathead screwdriver in there and seeing if you can unscrew it.
Hopefully the threads will be fine, I have some vague memory of looking at my own extractor and thinking it was a pretty good fit in the hole. With any luck you’ll get the bit to pop out easily enough if you can get a grip on it. Check it there is a hole in the bottom of it that you can get something through to pick it out as well.
If the threads are damaged it is probably just superficial and you can probably pick up a tap to clean them up reasonably cheaply if running it down with a bolt isn’t enough.
I tried all the suggestions in this thread. I broke 3 screw extractors and 4 drill bits and only accomplished flinging hot metal shavings around my living room.
Think this hub and wheel are a lost cause, so I’ll be buying a replacement this week.
Thanks for the help anyone, hopefully other people will avoid this mistake in the future.
As a last resort you might try drilling it out as close as you can get it to the threads see if you can get it out and then chase the threads with a tap.
If that doesn’t work, just plain drilling it out and then relying on the deeper threads beyond the damaged section to hold the crank might work.
Nah, the hub is solid in the center. I considered drilling a hole through it to try that but I don’t want to compromise the integrity of the hub, even though I think it’s already pretty gone…
The cheapest option, if there is no recovering that hub, is to just buy a new hub and reuse the rim and spokes to rebuild the wheel around the new hub.
Now I’m trying to find a 100mm 48h Isis hub to build myself a replacement. Looks like QU-AX has a direct replacement, but their shipping form doesn’t allow me to select a United States address.
As a last resort, if you’ve resigned yourself to it not coming out and you are okay with bodges, you could drive the part as far as you can down into the hub. Hopefully that would give you some good threads for the bolt to engage with, you’d probably need to cut the bolt shorter but hopefully it would have enough length left to retain the crank on the taper.
Check the depth you’ve got on the other side to see if that is realistic, the bit that came off the crank extractor is probably only about 7-8mm long, so you’ll get an idea of how much thread there is. If you do end up cutting the bolt shorter, make sure you get it square and clean the end of the threads up as they are reasonably fine.
Another option if you know someone who can weld stuff for you, get them to try to build up some weld on the centre of the part so that it becomes proud of the end of the axle so that you can get hold of it in a vice or with some ViceGrips.
