fholt

So I recently hit the wall regarding wear on the drivetrain. Replacing the chain caused noise (chainring) and skipping (cassette). Most of the wear on the crankset is on the small ring, so I replaced only that one, along with the chain and cassette. So I don't have any spec regarding how hard to torque the chainring bolts, nor whether to grease them. I greased the male threads as usual, and torqued them to somewhere near 80 in/lb (off the scale on my low range Park torque wrench). Riding it finds the crankset really creaky.

Is increasing torque or greasing the outside of the sleeve where it meets the chain rings and spider the next step?

fholt

FSA Crankset on the Fuji 209 Cross bike if it matters

cxwrench

Yes, grease. Uhhmmmm...95% wear? 95% of what?

veganbikes

Of the 43% of people who enjoy the taste of red wine but don't like UB40 but do enjoy Neil Diamond if they are in the right mood. Know your math.

base2 

Chain ring bolts get torqued to about 5 to 7 newton meters. Off the top of my head thats about 45 inch pounds. Any more & there's a good chance of breaking the chain ring bolt; Especially if it is an aluminum bolt.

I do chainring bolt threads at 5nm with blue Loctite 242. Grease is ok too, but may need a retorque at some point, in my experience.

Creakiness & whatnot indicates other issues.


FWIW: It doesn't hurt to label your units. You torqued to 80 what? Foot pounds? Inch pounds? Newton meters? Help us help you by properly & concisely conveying information in conventiontional terms. If you want to be taken seriously, proper prepositions, grammer, & sentance structure are a must. Hence the light & totally justified mockery above.

dsbrantjr

I grease only the male threads and keep the contact surfaces clean. And as base2 mentions, units are crucial. Confusion regarding units has resulted in the loss of an interplanetary spacecraft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_C...cecraft_design

fholt

Apologies for the messy post - I have cleaned it up. Thankfully I'm not allowed to have anything to do with interplanetary craft - just my creaky bike.

ClydeClydeson

As dsbrantjr says, grease the threads but keep all other surfaces clean. If you grease the outside of the chainring bolt/nut combo, it will turn in its hole on the chainring and this will keep it from tightening.

If you have the chainring bolts even moderately tight and you're still getting creaking, it's not the chainring bolts that are causing it.

Other possible causes:
Bottom bracket spindle interface with crank arms
Bottom bracket bearing/cup interface with frame
Saddle rails
Cable housings in housing stops

fholt

Thanks, I've recently had the BB serviced - I'll pull the rings back off and make sure all contact surfaces are clean and see if that helps.

cxwrench

Guess I better go clean the grease off the outside of a few thousand chainring bolts/nuts. I'm sure I've skipped a few but I have greased 99.999% of the bolts/nuts I've ever installed. Nuts spinning is not a problem...there's a tool for that.

Andrew R Stewart 

Having just Wednesday drilled out a ring bolt that was frozen in place I fully recommend greasing the bolts, and nuts, and insides as well as outsides. Been doing this for decades and haven't suffered a frozen bolt or a self loosening one on both my personal bikes as well as the customers' ones.

But lubrication is much like bathing. That you do it periodically is more the deal then which soap you use. Andy

Crankycrank

I'm with posts 10 & 11. Grease the inner and outer of the chainring bolts/nuts. It isn't always necessary for all riders in the conditions they ride but it sure can't hurt to keep things from getting corroded and stuck. Buy or make a chainring nut tool to hold the slotted nut in place. You'll need one at some point.

August West

Current Shimano specs are 12-16 N•m.

ClydeClydeson

Yes, please, get them back and fix the problem.. Nothing short of a full recall will do, and please post ads in local papers to inform your victims of your mistake

I have the tool, but since I learned to selectively grease certain parts of the bolts and leave other parts dry, I have not needed to use the tool on my own bikes. On others bikes I can never guess how things are assembled.

There was a thread about this exact thing a few weeks ago, including people wo dislike the chainring bolt spanner tool:

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...ring-nuts.html

base2 

Thanks for that. It would make sense that steel bolts would be higher.

It's so rare I come across steel chainring bolts for my own uses, I forgot the torque range for steel bolts. Though I do have some extra, extra, extra long (15mm) steel Raceface bolts I installed recently that specify 5nm on the bolt head. Interesting... That probably explains my faulty memory.

Litespud

I lightly grease the male threads only, then tighten up as much as the dumb little tool that engages the slots on the back of the Al nuts will allow. I use a 5mm "L" Allen key, so I'm not torquing excessively - I go with what feels appropriate, rather then a set torque setting, but I might try a torque wrench next time. I pull the rings maybe twice a year to give them a proper clean, and I redo everything again - only once did I have a chainring bolt loosen sufficiently between services to cause creaking - retightened all bolts and fixed the issue.

Kapusta

Huh. Never even though about greasing the outsides.

cxwrench

It makes sense to grease pretty much every place that parts touch on a bike with a very few exceptions.

Kapusta

I always grease my tubes and grips.

Andrew R Stewart 

Inner tube grease is called Talc. Andy

DaveSSS 

Some modern cranks don't have nuts on the chain ring bolts, since they screw into the spider. Shimano bolts from the factory have a thread locking compound on them. I use anti-seize on those.

Kapusta

I only use that stuff for wheel bearings.

icemilkcoffee 

That slot tool is the most useless bicycle tool of all. It never works when you need it to work. Leave the inner nut dry and grease only the outer bolt, and you barely even need the tool.

cxwrench

Funny, I don't seem to have problems w/ them.

veganbikes

Mine also works just fine and have yet to have issues with it. Shimano TL-FC21 is my go to and it always has done the job. It also works great on my T.A.Extractor Bolts for my square taper cranks.