I have to ask if it's really necessarry to install the cotter pin with a tool in the first place ? - My father taught me fairly early on that using any kind of tool (or hammer for that matter) to seat a cotter pin on the crank meant that it was going to be all the harder and more difficult to remove it the next time. He seemed to an age with engineers marking fluid ("blue") and a fine file, getting a "better" fit on a new cotter pin so it was well seated on the axle, rather than just taking a big hammer to the back of it and making it fit. This was perhaps taking it a little too far but I suppose he had a point, and I don't recall his cranks ever loosening off, and the better fit onto the surface of the axle flat ought to reduce the risk of slippage / movement under load. Other than that you should get it tight enough using the nut supplied.
Best Regards
Bob (cotterless ? - It'll never catch on) Reid Stonehaven Scotland
> From: "Aldo Ross" <swampmtn@siscom.net>
> Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2001 12:53:43 -0500
> To: <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Subject: [CR]cottered cranks question
>
> I finally bought a Park cotter pin press for all my my bikes with Magistroni
> cranksets! I've read Sheldon Brown's excellent articles about removal and
> installation of cotter pins, but I still have one question: How tight should I
> press in the cotter pin? Is it possible to exert TOO MUCH pressure with the
> Park tool?
>
> Thanks for any information.
>
> Aldo Ross