Picked a pair of these up recently. When I fit them, how freely should the bearing tension collar move as I’m finding it really hard to move even with the proper tool once I’ve torqued up the main crank bolt.

Have you loosened the pinch bolt?

I find I have to wind it right off and then out a quarter turn before fitting otherwise it can be a right pig to get moving.

It can be a little stiff to get moving. Another tip is not to squeeze it whilst trying to turn as this makes it grab the threads.

Shouldn’t be too difficult though – assuming you are turning it the right way 😉

Also I think it a left hand thread.

having exactly the same issue. I was starting to think that the BB shell is too wide and that it needs facing off (old aluminum s-works). By that I mean that because the BB shell is a bit too wide, the alxe of the crank is a bit too short so when the bolt is tightened, there’s not enough room and it starts to compress the bearings and not enough room for the LH side bearing adjuster, even when it is turned as close to the crank arm as possible. As the adjuster is compressed by the force of the securing bolt, it won’t turn.

Also starting to thing that it is a specialized ‘problem’ in general as I had the same issue with an e-13 crank on a different spesh frame.

could equally be down to my 10 thumbs.

back to the xtr crank – I am thinking of taking off the spacer (I only have one as it’s a 73mm shell) and either looking for a 1.5 or 2mm one instead of the 2.5mm I have now or if that fails some kind of width-reducing bodgery that I won’t mention here!

If the collar is all the way up against the crank and measure he drive side is fully located, you can typically see the axle. Have you measured the shell? If the shell is too wide, you’d feel the bearings get stiff and the crank bolt would cause too much preload on the bearings during fitting.