A few weeks ago I posted asking for advice on why my HT11 BB had side to side play. Someone said crank arm must be moving on the splines but I was convinced otherwise as crank was tight on splines and preload tool was as tight as possible with a wazzy plastic dooberry. I then tried shimming under the plastic securing bolt before preloading. This worked . Why? Can the steel insert that carries the splines work its way out of the crank?
A real puzzle.

How much play?, have you got the correct no. of shims behind the cups for your frame width? Sounds to me as if the preload cap is bottoming on the axle, and shimming it out is then allowing you to push the cranks on further.

is it a 68mm bb shell? if it is you should have 2 spacers on the drive side and one on non-drive side

are you using race face evolve cranks by any chance?

Can’t see him tightening Racefaces with a plastic preload adjuster tool.

haha good point! thought he might of had wobbly RF crank syndrome, until you pointed that out…

It’s an LX set up with the correct number of BB shims and has worked fine except for bearing replacement for two years.Yes Coatesy I am sure the locating bolt thingy is tight to the axle but this still gives 2 or 3 mm of side to side play without a shim under the bolt. The steel spline insert seems very slightly proud of the crank arm and I can’t remember whether it has always been like this or has moved out of the arm slightly which would explain things but I have never heard of it happening.

is it a superstar BB if so have you measured you tolerences? 😉

Oh the joys of HT2!

No, bearings were a betd refit into shimano shells and have worked well for nearly a year.

Exactly my point, the preload cap SHOULDN’T be tight to the axle, if it is then it can’t exert pressure on the crank arm to tighten it up against the bearings.Maybe the new bearings are a narrower section than the originals, I seem to remember some being 6mm and some being 7mm width.

Just re-read your original post and realised i’d missed your point(i’m old and easily confused). Can’t really see the axle pulling through the driveside crank,haven’t got one here to check but think they have a lip on them to prevent it happening. The obvious way of checking is to measure the length of axle sticking out from the driveside crank and compare it with a new one.I’ll do this in work tomorrow, unless somebody else comes up with the measurement first.