i brought a uni off ebay and was assemmbling it and whenn i took it over to a friends house so he could practice and as i was going up his driveway the crank fell off and it had a design i hadnet seen before so i gave it to him and told him to come overtomorrow this hu has a screw and a taper how do i reconnect it please this is urgent this crank has a plastic bit where it connects tothe hub i think you pop it off put on the crank then twist the plastic bit on
those sound like normal cotter less cranks…just out them on the right sides and tighten rm on reall good…use some locktite if you feel its nessesary
you cannot the taper, not the crank has a screw sticky outy bit please respond peoples i dont have much time til i go to school and i need to know for a friend
Here’s a write up different crank interfaces: http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38277
Can you tell what type it is by the description of each in that article?
still just sounds like a cotterless hub ans should be treated the same as anyother…its hard to telll without a pic…
sounds to me like its a cottered hub…which is really weird. but I’ve actually never seen a cottered hub with my own eyes, so I wouldn’t exactly know. do a google search for sheldon brown, or maybe its just sheldonbrown.com or .net or something, anyway, he has a ton of info about all parts of a bike. you should find somethin there.
heres roughly what it looks like not to scale and the light gray bit on the cranks is plastic
uni help.bmp (246 KB)
So why can’t you just slide the crank back on to the taper?
Right, take a deep breath, listen to Uncle Michael…
The diagram shows a standard cotterless crank with a square taper.
The plastic bit is only a dust cap. It can safely and easily be eased off with a thin screw driver or similar implement. It pushes back on and may need a sharp tap with a mallet to seat it. the uni will work without it, but you might get grit in the threads if you ride in the dirt or fall off a lot.
So, to refit the crank:
First, establish which is the right and left crank. This matters a lot.
The right crank is the one where the pedal screws in in the normal way (clockwise to tighten). Sometimes the pedal has an R on it. (Or the other one has an L on it!)
The right crank goes on the right side of the unicycle.
The left crank goes on the left side of the unicycle. The left crank is the one where the pedal screw in the “wrong” way: anticlockwise (US = counterclockwise) to tighten.
Make sure that the parts are clean.
Place the big square hole over the end of the tapered bit on the hub, and gently push until the crank is in place.
I like to support the other side of the uni somehow, and give the crank a single sharp tap with a rubber mallet to seat it.
Put the nut on. Tighten it at first by finger, making sure the threads run smoothly.
Then tighten the nut up firmly using a 14 mm socket or box spanner. There is no other way to do this.
Fit the other crank in the same way.
(Note that although the pedals screw intot the cranks in opposite directions, the nut in the middle is always a normal clockwise thread.)
Ride the unicycle fairly gently for a couple of hundred metres. Tighten the nuts again with the socket, and then repeat this procedure at least once more.
Now pop the dust caps into place.
How tight should those two nuts be? (Oooer, Matron, etc.
) With a normal sized handle on a socket set, you should be able to tighten the nut until it stop s moving, then give it an extra 14 turn, approx. Don’t be silly about it. As a general rule, you can make a sensibe guess at how hard to tightne something by looking at what size thread the designer chose. This size of nut wants the pressure you can sensibly apply with your wrist.
Never ever ride the uni with the cranks loose. It will damage the hub.
I have gone through my entire life without needing to Loctite a nut or bolt.
Pretty sure you meant to say 1/4 (one quarter) turn here. I can just see someone straining to throw in 14 (fourteen) turns;)
i think we’re too late. hes at SCHOOL!!! NOOOO
well, if his initial posts were more clear he mighta been helped sooner. plus the early responders did correctly inform him of it being a square taper.
thx mikefule i did it any ways james i cant slide it on becausei have to screw when the screwwy bit gets to the crank and i cant turn it cause the taper prevents me from doing it