Here are the instructions I wrote for a magazine regarding this method of cup removal:
A 16 x 100mm bolt and two nuts will take out even the most stubborn fixed cup. Screw one nut down about four cm, place the end through the fixed cup from the inside and screw on the second nut on the outside. Tighten this nut with a socket whilst holding the bolt head with a spanner. Then continue turning the outside second nut until the cup unscrews.
This has never failed to take out the most stubborn fixed cup I have encountered in 25 years - and the same bolt and nuts will take out stubborn Italian thread cups too - after tightening the nuts against each other, lean on the bolt head clockwise with a suitable socket or large adjustable.
Hilary Stone, Bristol, England
John Betmanis wrote:
> At 07:53 AM 07/04/2007 -0400, Chuck Taylor wrote:
>
>> The fixed cup however, looks like it requires a special tool. There are no
>> flats, and other than the center hole through which the spindle passes, the
>> only features are two pin-spanner sized holes on the outer cup face that are
>> separated from each other by an angle of about 45 degrees, and positioned
>> about midway between the inner spindle opening and the outer edge of the
>> cup.
>>
>> I can get both prongs of a pin spanner into these little holes, but they are
>> separated by an angle that is to narrow to apply effective torque to the
>> cup. I'm thinking that there's a special tool with stout pins and a long
>> lever that fits into both the spindle opening and the pin receivers.
>
> Try a big nut and bolt through the spindle hole. Tightening it should
> loosen the cup, if it's LH thread. I've never had to use this method, but
> apparently it's effective.
>
> John Betmanis
> Woodstock, Ontario
> Canada