No offense taken. I'm not nearly as inept in this field as I come across. i believe I know the answers to all of the above questions (and your answers reflect my knowledge), but the funny thing about knowing something, is you can easily be wrong; so I always confirm things unless I have direct experience doing a specific thing more than 1 time with no ill effects.
Splitting a crank is not much of an issue for me, but I thank you for your advice