Square Taper or Octalink Crank Removal & Installation (Practical Guide)

Square Taper or Octalink Crankset (https://www.firstcomponents.com/crank...) Removal and Installation in awesome detail.

Just a few tools are needed for this job. The first is an 8mm Allen wrench. A specialist tool, a"crank puller" is essential. This enables you to remove the crank from the BB spindle. A 15mm socket wrench is the most convenient tool to use to turn the crank puller. An alternative is a 15mm ring spanner. Better still is a longer handled shifting spanner/crescent wrench. Crank pullers with integrated handles are also available for a an all-in-one solution. You should have a torch wrench or at least a wrench with a long handle and a half inch drive to fit the 8mm socket that you'll need to tighten the crank bolts.

For the procedure we show loosening off the drive side crank bolt with the eight millimeter Allen key followed by removal of the crank with the crank puller. It's best to have the crank puller's foot withdrawn completely into the crank body. Light machine oil applied to the threads is advisable. The procedure is to turn the crank puller as far as it will go with the foot fully retracted. It is tight to begin with but quickly loosens up once the crank begins to move off the spindle and then it's easy to simply remove it.

The installation procedure is also quite simple. Whether or not to grease the spindle is debatable. If you decide you will apply grease then just a smear of grease is enough. Place the crank on the spindle, grease the bolts, tighten the boltsinto the spindle with the 8mm wrench. Then complete the job with a long handled wrench, the best, of course, being a torque wrench. 35nM to 40nM should be fine. 45nM is the highest torque setting you would want.

A Shimano octalink crank is removed and installed in the same way. When installing the crank make sure the crank sits snugly in the splines and that the non-drive side crank is on the same one hundred and eighty degree plane as the drive side. Installing and removing the dust caps is easy enough. They will be resistant on a new crankset but will slot right into place on an older crank. Make sure the dust cap is in exactly the position you want it to be before you press it in. If it's not in the right place you won't be able to turn it but will have to remove it again, get the right position, and press firmly into place. To remove simply lever the cap off with a thin wrench or pin or similar tool.