End that Crankarm Click

June 8th, 2007 by Brad Quartuccio

Along the same lines as Tame that Persistant Rattle comes End that Crankarm Click. You know the one, a persistant click that happens only when pedaling, seemingly from the cranks.

I’d reccommend checking those chainring bolts first and foremost. Next step is to pull those cranks off and take a look at the bottom bracket spinle / crank arm interface. If its dirty or has a tinge of rust on it, thats likely the culprint. Water can penetrate the gap between the arm and bottom bracket spindle, causing a bit of corrosion or pulling in some dirt with it. Clean off the spindle as best as possible, along with the taper or spline interface of the crank arm itself. Either apply grease to the bb spindle or not, depending on who you believe is right. For quelling a creak or click, a bit of grease can be your best friend. Tighten it all back down to spec and give it a whirl…

Still making the same click? Maybe its the bottom bracket. We can get into that next time.

7 Responses to “End that Crankarm Click”

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1 Guitar Ted on Jun 8th, 2007 at 8:38 pm

Maybe I’m getting ahead of you here, but another thing to check is your pedal spindles. They can creak and click just like a crank arm/bottom bracket creak/click. I had two of these in the last six months at the shop. Nothing a good coating of grease on the pedal spindle threads couldn’t cure!
2 Paul in Cin City on Jun 9th, 2007 at 3:10 am

My favorite local mechanic turned me on to a “secret” that has been very helpful. Instead of grease, add a drop of Locktite (or whatever their proprietary spelling is), thread locker at any rate, to each flat of the spindle. It helps fill in the gaps between crank and spindle and as long as you have enough sense to use the blue stuff there is no problem removing the cranks either. It may not fix every creak and or click, but I’ve been doing it ever since I was let in on the “secret” (my LBS mech said it was a secret) and it seems to work well in filling those gaps. YMMV

If you have Octalink/Isis, well I don’t know what effect this would have. I like me some square taper, uh huh.
3 Nathan on Jun 9th, 2007 at 9:23 pm

absolutely do not apply grease to your square taper BB axle unless you enjoy replacing crankarms.

check your driveside crankarm for a spider lock ring — a ring that holds the chainring “spider” to the crank arm. a loose lockring may cause the spider/crankarm interface to creak.

check that your BB is tight in your BB shell.

check that your chainring bolts are tight.

check that your crank fixing bolts are tight.

if applicable check that your external BB has the correct amount of preload (shimano hollowtech ii et alia.)
4 Fritz on Jun 9th, 2007 at 9:25 pm

I think the most common cause of crankarm click is something flopping around from the shoe.
5 Nathan on Jun 9th, 2007 at 9:28 pm

also check that your front derailleur cable isn’t hitting your crankarm.

and check that you don’t have any “stiff links” in your chain, nor and bent links.

failing all of the above check your rear linkage (on your full suspension bike) for play. bad bearings here can creak as well.

play the process of elimination game. does it creek in all three chainrings? does it creak when you hop on the pedals without pedaling? does it creak only when pedaling? does it creak with a different crankset installed? does it creak with a different bottom bracket installed?
6 Antoine on Jun 10th, 2007 at 7:53 am

I had this problem and it was driving me nuts! I bought the appropriate tools and removed/greased/refitted - ISIS bottom bracket, cranks and the chainring… The creak was still there!!! The first thing I had tried was tightening my pedals on the crank, but when as a last resort I removed the (extremely tightly attached) right pedal and put it back on with plenty of grease, the click/creak dissapeared : )
7 Tim on May 24th, 2008 at 3:20 pm

Not sure if it was here or somewhere else, but one piece of advice I found was to grab both crank arms and see whether there is any play anywhere inside from the arms down into the bottom bracket (BB) by wrenching it back and forth. I had a popping sound/feeling and did this and discovered that the BB had a little bit of play. Took it into the shop, I popped off the arms and discovered that even if I fingered the spindles, there was still play in it. Obviously a bad BB. Replaced it to the tune of $30 (don’t forget to clean the inside and the anti-sieze compound) and it feels brand new. Hopefully that eliminated the popping sound, but I shall see.

End that Crankarm Click

7 Responses to “End that Crankarm Click”

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