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Problems with a Campagnolo crank.

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Problems with a Campagnolo crank.

Old 12-12-21, 04:31 PM
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PBYO988 
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Problems with a Campagnolo crank.

Hello everyone.
I can’t seem to find a socket to fit this crank arm bolt, it fouls on the arm and the clearance between arm and bolt is very tight. . Does anyone have a suggestion that could work please?


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Old 12-12-21, 04:35 PM
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52telecaster
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Many folks grind down a socket wall just for this purpose.
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Old 12-12-21, 04:40 PM
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Fantastic idea Russell.
Because it’s a french bike would it be 14mm head? I don’t want to start hacking away at the wrong socket.
Thx for your help.
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Old 12-12-21, 04:47 PM
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Originally Posted by PBYO988
Fantastic idea Russell.
Because it’s a french bike would it be 14mm head? I don’t want to start hacking away at the wrong socket.
Thx for your help.
Probably 15mm, if it were 14 I'm guessing your socket might work. In any case both sizes are pretty common in bike cranks.
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Old 12-12-21, 04:47 PM
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Don't insult the very Italian Tullio Campagnolo!!!

Shimano mostly uses 14mm.
Campagnolo Strada/Record/Nuovo Record should be 15mm.

As @52telecaster mentioned, you can hunt for a thin walled socked, or gently grind down one you have.

Keep in mind, Campagnolo also uses a washer under the bolt. YOU MUST REMOVE THE WASHER BEFORE USING YOUR CRANK PULLER.
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Old 12-12-21, 04:50 PM
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Originally Posted by CliffordK
Don't insult the very Italian Tullio Campagnolo!!!

Shimano mostly uses 14mm.
Campagnolo Strada/Record/Nuovo Record should be 15mm.

As @52telecaster mentioned, you can hunt for a thin walled socked, or gently grind down one you have.

Keep in mind, Campagnolo also uses a washer under the bolt. YOU MUST REMOVE THE WASHER BEFORE USING YOUR CRANK PULLER.
Thankyou for the washer mention. Hate to ruin an expensive crank that is geared to high for me anyway!
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Old 12-12-21, 04:51 PM
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Most better quality sockets have a thin-enough wall to go in. Yours that's too thick-wall might be a cheapo, or maybe from an impact driver set? Try whatever 15 mm socket they sell at your local hardware store, it's likely to fit. Or grind yours down, as has been suggested already.

Or buy a dedicated bicycle tool like a "peanut butter wrench". Vintage ones tend to be expensive, especially the Campy branded ones.


Definitely not the Best Value, just kinda cool. Some off-brand peanut butter wrenches are just as functional as Campy and cheaper, but still more $$ than a socket from the hardware store.

Just be glad you don't have a Zeus crankset — they used the same size extractor tool, so the hole the socket has to fit in is the same, but the bolt was 16 mm instead of your 15 mm.

If you don't care about originality, you can easily find 14 mm bolts to go there, so thinwall sockets won't be needed in the future. I think any bike shop will have handfulls of those lying around and cheap. You'd still need a thinwall socket to get your existing bolts out though, so once you have the tool, you might as well stick with your Campy bolts.

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Old 12-12-21, 05:01 PM
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I just dealt with this problem on my sons Zeus. For that I used an old 5/8" spark plug socket, ground down.

The Zeus crank bolt head is 16mm.


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Old 12-12-21, 07:08 PM
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Invaluable as usual at BF, my thanks to everyone for a solution.
I’ll take a 15mm socket with me into work tomorrow and grind it on the bench grinder.
Also thanks for the heads up on the bolt washer, I’ll take care to remember to grab them before I start pulling.
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Old 12-15-21, 10:41 AM
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Thanks for the advice. I grinded down a 15mm socket and it worked like a dream.
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Old 12-15-21, 10:50 AM
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The kickstand is the problem.
campagnolo cranks AND a kickstand?

one has to keep up appearances
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Old 12-15-21, 10:50 AM
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I worked in a bike shop in the 1970s, we always used Craftsman sockets, did not need to grind them down.

I am guessing 6 point, not 12, but that is the kind of detail that is hard to remember.
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Old 12-15-21, 12:23 PM
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you can buy a snap on 15mm socket on eboy for 10 bucks and it will work "forever"

Grinding down a cheap socket may result in failure, busted knuckles and some bad words

/markp
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Old 12-15-21, 01:49 PM
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Isn’t anybody going to ask what chainrings are on that crank? Looks almost like a 52/42 with something like a 46 in between. Perhaps the big is a 53 and the others are something like a 42/46. Does that make it a half step + sonny?
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Old 12-15-21, 03:14 PM
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Originally Posted by PBYO988
Thanks for the advice. I grinded down a 15mm socket and it worked like a dream.
Awesome! Glad you got it done!
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Old 12-15-21, 04:26 PM
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Originally Posted by sd5782
Isn’t anybody going to ask what chainrings are on that crank? Looks almost like a 52/42 with something like a 46 in between. Perhaps the big is a 53 and the others are something like a 42/46. Does that make it a half step + sonny?
yow! good point!
I don't recall Frank Berto ever covering this particular type of gearing. I was going to say it was a triple half-step, but half-step plus sonny is a contender too.
Or in deference to modern terminology, maybe it's a thruple? Beats me.
It does raise questions about whoever configured this gearing. Someone obsessed with very close gears over a fairly narrow range?

edit: it occurs to me that it might actually be a 1/3 step gearing arrangement. No idea why someone would want this, but it makes more sense than a half-step triple. If the step between the rings were half of that between the freewheel cogs, then the large and small rings would produce a number of duplicate gears.

Steve in Peoria

Last edited by steelbikeguy; 12-15-21 at 04:29 PM.
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Old 12-15-21, 04:42 PM
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Originally Posted by sd5782
Isn’t anybody going to ask what chainrings are on that crank? Looks almost like a 52/42 with something like a 46 in between. Perhaps the big is a 53 and the others are something like a 42/46. Does that make it a half step + sonny?
I have the chainrings stripped down so I’ll post a few pics for clarity tonight.
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Old 12-15-21, 04:43 PM
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Originally Posted by repechage
The kickstand is the problem.
campagnolo cranks AND a kickstand?

one has to keep up appearances
I’ve never understood kickstands but it came with the bike. I don’t even think is original as it seems too long.
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Old 12-15-21, 05:47 PM
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Originally Posted by PBYO988
I’ve never understood kickstands but it came with the bike. I don’t even think is original as it seems too long.
Kickstands are great on city bikes; dual-leg kickstands even better. Just as Record/Nuovo Record is great on road bikes.

But definitely agree with @repechage - there are few cases where both really belong together (though IIRC, some Schwinn Paramount tourists came with Schwinn's overbuilt brazed-in stand and Nuovo Record bits).

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Old 12-15-21, 08:01 PM
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52-46-42
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Old 12-15-21, 08:07 PM
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1/2" drive 15mm socket ground down to clear the crank threads will work or 3/8" drive 15mm socket as is will fit also.
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Old 12-15-21, 11:15 PM
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Originally Posted by steelbikeguy
yow! good point!
I don't recall Frank Berto ever covering this particular type of gearing. I was going to say it was a triple half-step, but half-step plus sonny is a contender too.
Or in deference to modern terminology, maybe it's a thruple? Beats me.
It does raise questions about whoever configured this gearing. Someone obsessed with very close gears over a fairly narrow range?

edit: it occurs to me that it might actually be a 1/3 step gearing arrangement. No idea why someone would want this, but it makes more sense than a half-step triple. If the step between the rings were half of that between the freewheel cogs, then the large and small rings would produce a number of duplicate gears.

Steve in Peoria
campagnolo made the extra long fasteners and spacers. For a real touring set up they were marginal. Later Campag offered a special arm and spacers to provide for the one size they manufactured - 36t
others have subverted and found smaller rings and or machined their own to mate with a more common BCD for the smallest ring.
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Old 12-16-21, 12:39 AM
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Girly-Man Gears

Originally Posted by repechage
campagnolo made the extra long fasteners and spacers. For a real touring set up they were marginal. Later Campag offered a special arm and spacers to provide for the one size they manufactured - 36t
others have subverted and found smaller rings and or machined their own to mate with a more common BCD for the smallest ring.
In Italy, especially among those of Campagnolo's ilk, cyclotouring was a pursuit practiced by British, French and German girly-men! /s

Italian bikes came in 2 flavors pedestrian/urban single speed or 3-4 sprocket rear derailleur only models, or... full on racing machines ridden by "uomini d'acciaio" (men of steel).

Witness the original Campy 151 BCD Record cranks with a minimum 44T small chainring. A lot of "racing" bikes from the late 60's through the early 70's came with 52-45T chainrings which were hard to work out smooth ratios that would allow more than 7 distinct gears!

The Campy Record Triple had a 36T small chainring. They could have made a 30T chainring to fit the 100mm BCD pattern but that would have been for wimps. The original triples were most likely produced for tandems! Racing tandems!

It wasn't until the early 1980's when Campagnolo introduced their down market Triomphe, Victory, and Nuovo Gran Sport 116 BCD cranks with a 35T minimum small chainring. The 35T, 36T, 37T, 38T, 39T, 40T and 41T girly-man chainrings were very hard to find because of... availability, maybe???

One reason those cranks didn't sell well is because they were a major departure away from the much copied iconic Campy cranks introduced in 1958. The frumpy 25+ year old design was what Campy buyers looked for.... or why Shimano ate their lunch in the mid-range market!

It wasn't until Campy's ill fated venture into MTB components and the brief era of "racing triples" that they took lower gearing seriously!

Ora che ho lanciato il guanto di sfida !!!

ADDENDUM: I built a number of 1/2 Step Triples - 50-46-30T. They worked great with 6 speed FWs



With the advent of 7 and 8 speed cassettes the Shimano 48-38-28T MTB triples made more sense. Stay on one front chainring and shift the rear sprockets unless you needed to bail on a hill or had a strong tail wind!





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Old 12-16-21, 06:33 AM
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Originally Posted by PBYO988
Because it’s a french bike would it be 14mm head? I don’t want to start hacking away at the wrong socket.
Campagnolo crank bolts are 15mm. A high-end socket from e.g. Snap-On or Proto should fit without grinding. Campagnolo's "peanut butter" wrench also works, as do its clones from Park, TA, etc.
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Old 12-16-21, 07:12 AM
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I want to mention the Park CCW-2 but it looks like it's been discontinued. Includes thin walled 14, 15 and 16 ends and a hex for the caps. Mine gets a fair amount of use.
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