I've never had a problem with the official Stronglight extractors, and I've pulled a lot of Stronglight cranks. It is true one often gets away with using the TA end of an old Park, but I wouldn't recommend it. Check with Sheldon. On his French page he lists the VAR #393 as fitting Stronglight, but doesn't give a price. On the main Harris parts page he list the price at $25.95 but show it as fitting TA, not Stronglight. Bike Tools Etc. lists the Stein Stronglight puller at $29.95 but it is currently out of stock.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Houston, TX
Does anyone out there have a 23.35 mm thread diameter Stronglight crank puller for sale or know where I can get one? According to the Sheldon Brown / Harris Cyclery web site, the Stronglight pre-1982 cottered cranks were the only ones to use this size; most cranks use a 22 mm thread while TA used a 23 mm puller for some of their cranks.
There is a Stein puller available for about $50 but I'll go into my department's machine shop and make my own before I pay that much. Fortunately, there's a local list member (Tom Hayes) who will let me borrow one of his removers so that I can do some work on one of my bikes; however I want to have a remover permanently in hand before I again mount any of the Stronglight cranks I have in my parts cabinet. To make matters more interesting, Tom tells me that his official Stronglight puller destroys cranks but that an obsolete 'double-threaded' Park puller that he owns works well, even though it was not meant to fit Stronglight cranks. Viva la France!
Gary Chottiner, northeast Ohio