We used the VAR cotter press to get them out too! Kept 2 of them in our shop.
The secret was to remove the soft nuts that were used on most cotters and replace them with a hardened steel nut or two. Tighten the nut or nuts down until there was only about a half turn from being tight.
Once broken loose, the nuts could be removed and the cotter pressed the rest of the way out.
Then there was the joy when the threaded section of the cotter broke off (someone over tightening it) or mushed over so much it wouldn't clear the hole in the crank arm! Hacksaw and 1/4" drift pin time. I remember having to drill a few cotters out too.
After a 30 year spell, I've had the "pleasure" of working on 2 bikes with cottered cranks in the past 3-4 months.
Oh the joys of anachronistic technology.
...and friends ask me why don't I open my own bike shop??? ;-)
Chas. Colerich - If it doesn't go, get a bigger hammer... (expletive removed) Oakland, CA USA
earle.young tds.net wrote:
> Chas Coleridge said: "We had a bike come in for service once that had
> cranks off at least 20?! I can't remember if it was due to mismatched
> crank arms or what."
>
> I saw that a lot too. It comes from driving the cotters in in opposite
> directions, as in when the cranks are horizontal, the nuts are both up.
> Because of the taper, that will force the cranks to be at the off angle.
> 10 percent taper per cotter equals 20 percent out of phase.
>
> When you had all the right tools and a good selection of cotters, they
> weren't so bad to deal with. It just took some practice. The most
> important tool was something to support the crank arm so you could pound
> out a damaged cotter. A piece of inch and a half diameter thick walled
> pipe was the usual tool. The most elegant was a wood block arrangement
> that supported both cranks and had a hole correctly placed to knock out
> the left cotter (which was always the one that gave you trouble). The
> whole idea is to precisely administer some serious brute force directly
> to the cotter. A quarter inch drift punch and a 2-pound short-handled
> sledge will take out the most stubborn cotters once the crank arm is
> properly supported.
>
> The big VAR cotter press was the tool of choice to put them back in. The
> late Clay Grubic of Tow Path Cycles and Potomac Pedalers in Washington,
> DC, taught me how to make short work of the toughest cotters. In modern
> bike shops, the kids who see cotters once a month instead of several
> times a day are a little astounded at the process.
>
> Earle "I love a heavy hammer used right" Young
> Madison, Wisconsin