New Build/Crankset Issue - All City Macho Man Disc

All,

I'm reaching out to you in hopes of getting some ideas for my problem.

I purchased a sexy All City Macho Man Disc frameset and have been slowly building it up over the past few months.  Everything has gone smooth, with the exception of the crankset installation.  After installing the bottom bracket, I'm able to insert both the drive, and non-drive, side of the crank arms.  But when I tighten the bolt (on the non-drive side arm) I end up with about 1mm of clearance between the frame's chainstay and the end of the crank arm (near where the pedal bolts into the crank arm).

I've done hours of research to ensure I'm using a compatible bottom bracket and crank, but still cannot figure out why there's so little clearance.  I have two concerns: 1). under torque/flex I'm concerned the crank arm may graze the chain stay and 2). My left heel/shoe hits the chain stay when I pedal.

For reference, here's a list of the parts I'm using:

-FSA Energy Crankset 46/36 (with no crank arm pinch bolts)
-FSA MegaExo bottom braket for 24mm spindels model 200-1869

Any advice would be helpful.  Just frustrated with this issue.

I have a stock build (well, mostly) Macho Man Disc with the FSA Gossamer cranks. There is a spring washer (like a wavy spacer) between the non-drive arm and the BB Bearing. It looks to account for about 3mm of space between the arm and the BB. There is also what looks like it might be a solid spacer against the crank arm itself, but I think it's just forged/machined as part of the arm itself. With all that, there is still maybe 5mm at the most between the non-drive arm and the chainstay. Would you be missing the wavy washer?

@shoaf  Yes, I also have that wavy washer installed.  Good to know that your stock build is at about 5mm of distance between the non-drive side crank arm and chainstay.  Do you happen to have a picture of what you are describing regarding the solid spacer against the crank arm?? 

I'm curious if all I'm needing are some additional spacers on the non-drive side.  My only concern is will there be enough space for the crank arm to sit properly, without any play.

Here is about as good a photo as I can get. All that dirt is making it hard to see, but maybe you can get the idea?

   

Thanks, shoaf.  That's very helpful.  I do have that wavy washer, but I also can't tell if that's an additional spacer.  You definitely have more clearance at the crank arm than I do.  Maybe I'll try searching for a similar spacer.  I'm just surprised that it's even needed.  My understanding is that spacers are required for the MTB mega exo cranks, not the road.

The more I look at it, the more that "spacer" looks like it might just be a part of the crank arm and not a separate piece. I've never dealt with FSA cranks before (really only messed with Shimano), so I'm really not sure. I haven't had a reason to pull this apart (yet...).

Okay, so last night I added a spacer on the non-drive side and this seemed to work for me.  I was able to get a couple more millimeters of clearance.  So, my concern of the non-drive side crank arm not having enough spline to bolt onto the bottom bracket (when utilizing a spacer) is not an issue.  Also, when searching for more All-City Macho Man Disc pictures on Google, I found what appears to be a stock build with a spacer.

That said, the stock build is utilizing what I think is an FSA Gossamer MegoExo crankset with a BB-6000 (specific for pinch bolt FSA cranks).  For my particular frame build, an FSA Energy MegaExo crankset with a FSA BB-6200 (drive side cup) coupled with a Shimano BB-5700 (non-drive side cup), with a 2mm bottom bracket spacer, works. 

 

 

 

All in all, I spent way to much time, and more money than expected, trying to figure out BB and crankset compatibility for this particular frame.  Lessons learned: next time I'll stick with buying stock build crankset and bottom bracket components.

Glad you got it figured out... doesn't seem like anything is ever simple. At least not on anything I ever deal with.