Loose Truvativ Cranks

[SteveC]

???Anyone have experience with Truvativ Stylo Team Cranks? I guess my crankbolts were loosening when new, and by the time I checked them, there was already some obvious wear inside the splines. So I 'blue' threadlocked the bolts, cranked them down to the specified torque, and there still seems to be some creaking, even as I torque them more than specified,........Am I in for trouble? Could I 'shim' the spline somehow, to take up the slack from the wear? Should I just throw them away and start over?

SC

[Zog]

First, are you sur the creak is from the crank-bottom bracket interface? Usually creaking down there comes from the BB cups. Take the whole thing apart. Clean it all. then put the BB cups back on using one or more of the following on the threads:
1.) Just plain grease, a good waterproof kind
2.) Anti-sieze coumpound, the silver colored stuff
3.) Teflon pipe thread tape

I've had the best luck with just anti-sieze, but teflon tape with a litttle grease works best to get rid of noise in a BB.

If you're sure the creak is from your crank arm-bottom bracket interface and the splines are in rough shape and probably shot, I'd try greasing the splines heavily and use RED (272) Loctite on the crank bolts. This is a stonger loctite than the blue but can be taken off with a little heat from a propane torch of soldiering iron.

[Big Game]

My K2 Razorback 4.0 has the same Truvativ Stylo isis cranks. It HAD the same problem. But note my use of the past tense: The problem has been fixed.

Now how to fix it:

Your crank is actually threaded into your spider (isn't that wacky?). All you have to do is tighten it. That will solve the problem. I can't rememer exactly how I tightened mine (I think I used a rag and a vise to hold the spider while turning the crank clockwise).

If you still have a problem, I remember that my truvativ bb loosened as well. I simply removed and tightened that as well. You'll probably need those tricky little forceps thingies for that job.

I'm afraid I haven't explained the fixes reasonably well. If you still can't figure it out, let me know. Good luck

[CouchingTiger]

I had a brand new set that were junk out of the box. The tolerances were bad between the crank splines and the BB on both crank arms. They replaced it with a set that was only half defective (one crank arm). They were hesitant to replace again, but finally did and the last pair were fine. Early runs of ISIS stuff were not very good.

-Couch

[SteveC]

Thanks guys for your quick responses!! I will checkout all of those possibilities, and maybe see if a warranty would be in order.........
SC