[Closed] Help with removing chainset/cranks

You want the 22. The 44 is for Octalink/Isis. If you use one of those on square taper cranks you'll strip the threads and it'll be new cranks time. (Or get them helicoiled.)

If you remove the crank bolt you can check if its a square taper or not.

And if you've only got the tool for square taper and you want to remove an Octalink crank, you can use anything that fills the hole in the middle of the BB axle as long as it _doesn't_ touch the splines of the crank. IIRC a penny used to be just the right size.

People used to say you could do that with a 5p piece. I tried it once out of curiosity: the 5p was the right size, but the end result was a knackered 5p wedged in the spindle. I'd suggest buying the proper tool.

I use an old bolt from a quill stem cut to length for Octalink BBs. You leave the retaining bolt in the opposite side and the bolt pushes against that, with your BB puller pushing against the head of the bolt. Obviously, having the right tool is better, but this worked as a bodge.

Suntour will almost certainly be square taper - I would buy an X-Tools one for a fiver (does both anyway) rather than spending 2.5x the money for a blue handle.

Your can still get the proper [url= https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-octalink-chainset-plug-tool/rp-prod5728 ]Shimano top hat[/url] tool to use with a square taper puller and Octalink cranks (it just plugs into the axle).

Octalink is a Shimano proprietary technology which I don't think was licensed to any other manufacturers so I doubt that the Suntour will be Octalink.

Yep X-Tools version does both square taper and octalink, very handy to have in the tool box.

Don't be tempted to buy one of those cheap combined crank pusher tool and socket for the bolt. I had one that just pushed itself out of the extrator threads in the crank, destroying the threads. Got a Park tools one and it was fine. Cheap tools can have expensive consequences.

Whatever you get, always make sure the threads are fully engaged before extracting the crank.

If, once those threads are finger tight, the socket part (or the lever if you have a Park style extractor) doesn't rotate freely, then it's probably contacting the spindle and this will be preventing your extractor thread being fully engaged.

If you don't have full engagement you'll most likely strip the threads.

If you make sure of this then I've never had a problem with any type of extractor, and I've had one of the cheap combined tools you mention all that time.

Though of course I didn't get far into my 30 years of bike maintenance without learning to check thread engagement the hard way. (And, many years later, after I'd rid myself of Isis/Octalink, also learning not to forget that you've still got the now-redundant Octalink tool when you pluck an extractor from the toolbag…)

These days I tend to fit self-extracting bolts to all square taper cranks. They're under a tenner, and if you fit them properly you can do everything with an 8mm allen key without worrying about thread engagement or extractor types.

So I removed the 14mm bolt from the crankset this evening to see what was behind. I take it from the pic that I have a square crank and require the CCP-22 puller?

https://ibb.co/Fq4pDqP couldn't make it work in the post.

Yes, that’s square taper.