In addition to grease on the crank arm, you can also use grease on the
threads. That makes sure that as much as possible of the force you're
applying goes into tightening the cranks.
Tapping with a hammer? WARNING!! Only very light taps are OK. But as
soon as the nut engages enough of the thread, don't use the hammer any
more. The sudden force of a hammer blow is likely to cause haircracks
to arise near the four corners of the crank hole, and once this
begins, the cracks tend to grow due to the forces of riding and even
of tightening. It is the beginning of the end for your crank!
The crank nut is not easily overtightened. For most systems, the best
tightening torque is around 40 lbs.ft. If you don't have a torque
wrench, you can use a normal wrench of 1 foot long and lean on the end
with a weight of 40 lbs. Or a half foot long wrench and lean with 80
lbs, etc. This is probably not easy to do exactly, but it gives an
idea about how tight the nut should be.
Now that I think of it, maybe you can put the uni on a bathroom scale.
Use a non-digital one, because most digital scales need a stable
weight to display a value at all. Then orient the wheel such that you
push down vertically on the wrench. Don't push or pull on the uni
while tightening. Subtract the weight of the uni + half the weight of
the wrench for extra precision...
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
--
"I (...) made it without dying, which means mere mortals can do it. - John Foss"
