yeah,sorry,the axle will be steel.its on a klein attitude,92ish in date, that i recently put together.....i assume it is the original axle.i have ridden it four or five times now in anger over the past month and despite applying an appropriate amount of torque to the bolt cant get it to remain put,resulting in the usuall creaking.once retightened the creaking stops until the bolt works loose again.....the crank looks visually fine.....i considered the loctite thing but wanted to canvass opinion before leaping from frying pan to fire.....daz