Creaking Cranks?

Adam? Jacobe Hazzard said:

I noticed a clicking or snapping while pedaling the other day, intermittent, and more felt than
heard. The problem slowly worsened, and became more of a creaking sensation, and more audible.
Today I pulled off the cranks, cleaned out all the points of attachment, greased the threads, and
put them back on with a torque wrench, to 150 ft lbs I think.

I don't think you did that because an 8mm screw won't take more than a small part of that torque.
However, when you say clicking, I think of a different source, although creaking may really be the
true character of the sound.

Quoted message said:

This actually made the problem worse. What should I do? Can I tighten much more? Do I need to
replace the cranks/BB? BTW this is a hybrid bike frame with flat plastic pedals.

I don't know what "flat plastic pedals" are. However, clicking snapping sounds are usually caused by
water intrusion in ball bearings as rust develops. In that respect, I would look first in the BB
bearings, then the pedals, although most pedals, being blind holes, do not take up water easily. If
your cranks were running loose, you should be able to detect that as you re-install them. When
pushed on by hand, they would have a rotationally wobbly fit (with one crank tight), the left one
more than the right.

Since you seem to be unfamiliar with this sort of problem, your description of the symptoms may not
convey the same picture that others reading it see. Keep us posted.

Jobst Brandt [email hidden] Palo Alto CA

"Jacobe Hazzard" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I noticed a clicking or snapping while pedaling the other day, intermittent, and more felt than
heard. The problem slowly worsened, and became more of a creaking sensation, and more audible.
Today I pulled off the cranks, cleaned out all the points of attachment, greased the threads, and
put them back on with a torque wrench, to 150 ft lbs I think. This actually made the problem
worse. What should I do? Can I tighten much more? Do I need to replace the cranks/BB? BTW this is
a hybrid bike frame with flat plastic pedals. Thanks for tips,

Adam

I had creaking once, and it turned out that the bottom bracket was too tight. If you take the chain
off and spin the cranks, do they spin freely?

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

I noticed a clicking or snapping while pedaling the other day, intermittent, and more felt than
heard. The problem slowly worsened, and became more of a creaking sensation, and more audible.
Today I pulled off the cranks, cleaned out all the points of attachment, greased the threads, and
put them back on with a torque wrench, to 150 ft lbs I think.

150ft/lbs is a lot. are you sure about that number? 150 inch pounds is not tight enough, if that is
the scale you use. It is pretty safe to use 35ft/lbs as a torque setting for cranks. Tighten them
properly the first time and then leave them alone.

Quoted message said:

This actually made the problem worse. What should I do? Can I tighten much more? Do I need to
replace the cranks/BB? BTW this is a hybrid bike frame with flat plastic pedals.

I would check the pedals and the BB to see if the bearings are good before I would start to
replace parts.
-----------------
Alex __O _-\<,_ (_)/ (_)

Alex Rodriguez said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

I noticed a clicking or snapping while pedaling the other day, intermittent, and more felt than
heard. The problem slowly worsened, and became more of a creaking sensation, and more audible.
Today I pulled off the cranks, cleaned out all the points of attachment, greased the threads, and
put them back on with a torque wrench, to 150 ft lbs I think.

150ft/lbs is a lot. are you sure about that number? 150 inch pounds is not tight enough, if that
is the scale you use. It is pretty safe to use 35ft/lbs as a torque setting for cranks. Tighten
them properly the first time and then leave them alone.

Quoted message said:

This actually made the problem worse. What should I do? Can I tighten much more? Do I need to
replace the cranks/BB? BTW this is a hybrid bike frame with flat plastic pedals.

I would check the pedals and the BB to see if the bearings are good before I would start to
replace parts.
-----------------
Alex __O _-\<,_ (_)/ (_)

Thanks guys. I'm not sure about the actual torque I used, but I did this with a friend and he seemed
pretty confident it was a good number. As for your questions, the crank does not feel wobbly, and
yes it does spin freely. My thinking is that if adjusting the crank made the problem worse, then
that must be where the problem was to begin with but today I will take a look at the BB bearings and
pedals and all.

Adam

"Jacobe Hazzard" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I noticed a clicking or snapping while pedaling the other day,

intermittent,

Quoted message said:

and more felt than heard. The problem slowly worsened, and became more of

a

Quoted message said:

creaking sensation, and more audible. Today I pulled off the cranks,

cleaned

Quoted message said:

out all the points of attachment, greased the threads, and put them back

on

Quoted message said:

with a torque wrench, to 150 ft lbs I think. This actually made the problem worse. What should I
do? Can I tighten much more? Do I need to replace the cranks/BB? BTW this is a hybrid bike frame
with flat plastic pedals. Thanks for tips,

Adam

You might want to take off the rear wheel, remove the cassette, grease the freehub splines, and
reassemble, making sure the lockring is tight. This worked for me (input from Peter Chisolm on a
similar post) when I thought I had a crank creak.....

Grenouil said:

"Jacobe Hazzard" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I noticed a clicking or snapping while pedaling the other day, intermittent, and more felt than
heard. The problem slowly worsened, and became more of a creaking sensation, and more audible.
Today I pulled off the cranks, cleaned out all the points of attachment, greased the threads, and
put them back on with a torque wrench, to 150 ft lbs I think. This actually made the problem
worse. What should I do? Can I tighten much more? Do I need to replace the cranks/BB? BTW this is
a hybrid bike frame with flat plastic pedals. Thanks for tips,

Adam

You might want to take off the rear wheel, remove the cassette, grease the freehub splines, and
reassemble, making sure the lockring is tight. This worked for me (input from Peter Chisolm on a
similar post) when I thought I had a crank creak.....

I have a freewheel not a freehub, and also it was recently replaced. Not sure if this makes it more
or less suspect, but I can't see how a freewheel could come loose with normal use (or cranks really,
for that matter). The ratcheting is quiet and smooth, but I will consider this as well.

Adam

Jacobe Hazzard said:

Grenouil said:

"Jacobe Hazzard" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I noticed a clicking or snapping while pedaling the other day, intermittent, and more felt than
heard. The problem slowly worsened, and became more of a creaking sensation, and more audible.
Today I pulled off the cranks, cleaned out all the points of attachment, greased the threads, and
put them back on with a torque wrench, to 150 ft lbs I think. This actually made the problem
worse. What should I do? Can I tighten much more? Do I need to replace the cranks/BB? BTW this is
a hybrid bike frame with flat plastic pedals. Thanks for tips,

Adam

You might want to take off the rear wheel, remove the cassette, grease the freehub splines, and
reassemble, making sure the lockring is tight. This worked for me (input from Peter Chisolm on a
similar post) when I thought I had a crank creak.....

I have a freewheel not a freehub, and also it was recently replaced. Not sure if this makes it
more or less suspect, but I can't see how a freewheel could come loose with normal use (or cranks
really, for that matter). The ratcheting is quiet and smooth, but I will consider this as well.

Adam

Another thing to check is the seatpost. Most of the time, my BB creak is actually my seatpost
needing to be lubed. Mark/measure the height, pull it, wipe it clean, apply a thin layer of grease,
put it back, wipe off the excess grease 🙂.

David

David Kunz said:

Quoted message said:

Another thing to check is the seatpost. Most of the time, my BB creak is actually my seatpost
needing to be lubed. Mark/measure the height, pull it, wipe it clean, apply a thin layer of
grease, put it back, wipe off the excess grease 🙂.

David

I can make the creak while standing. I am hoping to repack the BB today and get this sorted, didn't
have time yesterday.

Adam

Today I repacked the BB with new bearings and grease (it was pretty groady) and repeated my cleaning
of the cranks and torqued them on at 250 inch-pounds. Worked perfectly.

Thanks for all the posts, although there were so many suggestions for what might be creaking I
thought for a while it might as easily be me!

Adam

Jacobe Hazzard said:

I noticed a clicking or snapping while pedaling the other day, intermittent, and more felt than
heard. The problem slowly worsened, and became more of a creaking sensation, and more audible.
Today I pulled off the cranks, cleaned out all the points of attachment, greased the threads, and
put them back on with a torque wrench, to 150 ft lbs I think. This actually made the problem
worse. What should I do? Can I tighten much more? Do I need to replace the cranks/BB? BTW this is
a hybrid bike frame with flat plastic pedals. Thanks for tips,

Adam

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

250 inch-pounds.

Ah, that's it. INCH.

Glad to hear everything is fine now.

Rick