Originally Posted by
BFisher
This sounds like the angle of the flat may have been too steep. Are you filing both drive side and non drive side pins the same amount and at as close to the same angle as possible?
Filing cotters is tricky indeed. Are these the originals, or are the ones that were installed initially still around? If you have one that previously worked intact, then you have a reference point.
I am trying to get one arm on one end of the spindle and have a bike to ride. The left arm came loose. Original installation lasted maybe 3000 miles and then creak. For time being it is a fixed gear and the right crank is still on there. And it is very flat around here. So I ride the bike with one crank arm. It gets old.
After I get the one crank arm attached and it stays attached will think about fancy stuff like two equal arms. Absolutely and completely no notion whatsoever what angle I should be aiming for.
LBS that did the first replacement has the original cotter. At time I took the bike from them I did think of asking for the old part back but it is covid time. Can’t enter shop. Asking questions through masks. And the shops I know that pretend they can do this are down in the war zone where everything is all boarded up and the population in shell shock. So not possible to ask too much.