[Closed] aaaaargghhh Stuck pedal

Turning it the right way (bike upside down, allen key/spanner pointing towards the front of the bike and push down/smack with a mallet or a shoe)? Tried penetrating oil? Pour boiling water over it?

might have read it wrong: won't come off the cranks or is it stuck as in wont spin?

Bigger hammer.

Soak it overnight in wd40 failing that diesel works well 😀

O/N in gt85 didnt work, hair dryer, boiling water, all failed and ive bent 2 allen keys and one of them was from my favourite set 🙁

LBS couldnt manage it either

im buying some copperslip at lunch and prepping all my pedals!

drill it out with a large dia. bit and then retap to remove any remaining bits of pedal in the thread.

New cranks.

I have the same problem mate, XTR pedal welded into a deore crankset. The worst thing is I did use copperslip to fit it! What a bummer. Leant on a park tool allen key with all my weight and it wasnt budging...i could see the shaft bending over quite a lot though! Tried all the usual tricks with no luck. When i worked at halfords we used some shock and unlock a few times which worked quite well.

Could never understand why people do them up tight in the first place? Surely the thread direction means even if they are barely more than finger tight they won't come off? Hope so anyway as all mine aren't torqued up much...

the problem isn't that they're too tight it's that the threads have corroded together.

also precession generally means that pedals will tighten themselves over tiem anyway (hence the reverse thread).

Thanks wwaswas. Off to the shed armed with some copaslip...

plusgas and a pedal spanner in a long pipe for leverage

decent spanner and leverage - using the other crank may help.

Drilling out the pedal LOL!

It does take time, a pillar drill and lots of cutting oil 😉

plusgas same as using a blow torch?

If the threads are welded together wont will the pedal actually become unstuck or just rip the threads to bit? Not sure its worth risking XTR pedals.

Also your pedals shouldn't be loose....if they come loose you can strip the threads of off the Crank before you realise what is happening.

drilling out the pedal was what the lbs suggested

mines a cheapy crank bros on a deore crank so its not the end of the world just a PITA

i tried the long pipe and just bent the allen key!- its allen key only

What about an allen key socket on a breaker bar? Even better would be an impact socket if you can get them small enough and see if you can find a friendly garage with an impact gun. It'll either get it out or destroy the pedal, hopefully the former :).

Could never understand why people do them up tight in the first place? Surely the thread direction means even if they are barely more than finger tight they won't come off? Hope so anyway as all mine aren't torqued up much...

Thread direction means that pedals unscrew whilst pedalling forwards, bottom bracket tightens as pedalling forwards.

Failing all of the above i would take the cranks off and hold it over a gas hob until it's smoking. Then try and loosen it. If you don't have a blow torch as suggested above...

Gently 'bounce' long arm allen key.
Repeat with gentle tapping from rubber mallet.
Repeat with larger lump hammer plus odd choice word.
Pause for thought.
Apply penetrating oil, make a cup of tea, take a calm breath and hit with hammer again.
Remove crank and place in vice, increasing strength of hammer blows and volume of language used.

Come to the realisation you're braying it in the wrong direction.
Have a man cry.

Turn round crank, apply short sharp blow with hammer and loosen pedal, taking as much skin off your knuckles as possible.

Have another cup of tea (leaving grease/bloodstains at points most likely to annoy missus).
Marvel in your own glory as a home mechanic.

I'd remove the chainrings before going much further - nothing seems to penetrate a knuckle attached to a slipped allen key quite as succesfully as a slightly worn chainring.

Thread direction means that pedals unscrew whilst pedalling forwards, bottom bracket tightens as pedalling forwards

Ay? Have you got different cranks to everyone else?

Had one completely stuck on my commuter. I had to take the crank off then clamp the pedal in a vice with a couple of bits of metal to clamp onto the flats. Then some hammering and leverage on the crank eventually got it off.

maybe the back wheel is in backwards...

following nickjb's line - dismantle the pedal and file some 'flats' on the axle so it won't spin in the vice and then use the crank arm plus extra bits of metal as leverage?

Ay? Have you got different cranks to everyone else?

nope.

Thread direction means that pedals unscrew whilst pedalling forwards, bottom bracket tightens as pedalling forwards.

I think you may be sitting on your bike the wrong way round.

[url= http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/pedal-installation-and-removal-pw-3-pw-4-pw-5-hcw-16 ]http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/pedal-installation-and-removal-pw-3-pw-4-pw-5-hcw-16[/url]

The right side pedal has a right-hand thread (removes counterclockwise, installs clockwise). The left side pedal has a left-hand thread (removes clockwise, installs counterclockwise)

ie. right side pedal for example, installs clockwise, therefore crank must turn anti-clockwise in relation to pedal axle to install pedal, therefore pedaling backwards whilst pedal axle does not rotate will tighten pedal, therefore pedalling forwards whilst holding pedal axle will loosen pedal.

😀

pedalling forwards whilst holding pedal axle will loosen pedal

Yes, but that's not what happens when you're pedalling normally though, cos of precession:

Bicycle pedals
Bicycle pedals are left-threaded on the left-hand crank so that precession tightens the pedal rather than loosening it. This may seem counter-intuitive, but the torque exerted due to the precession is several orders of magnitude greater than that caused by a jammed pedal bearing.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession_(mechanical)

Otherwise your pedals would unscrew all the time, which they don't, right?

Yes, however the original comment was in relation to a statement that the pedal shouldn't need to be more than finger tight. In that situation the drag in the bearing (particularly with flats that dont rotate as easily so that you can get your feet back on them) could be greater than any force due to precession causing the pedal to fall off.

I didnt say that they will just fall off through normal use, that would be rediculous.

remove cranks, use vice with soft jaws, 1/2 drive allen key bit and breaker bar..... or use an impact driver....

I didnt say that they will just fall off through normal use, that would be rediculous.

Obviously. Right you are then, ok, yes, I'll shut up, sorry. 🙂

😆

Doesn't metal shrink with cold- take crank off and stick it in the freezer for a few hours, chainrings off though as slippage is painful
Just done a tight one myself this morning with an Allen key in a long bar
So maybe do both

wwaswas - Member
It does take time, a pillar drill and lots of cutting oil

ON a hardened axle?

What are the axle and cranks made of?

If they are the same material i cant see heat/cold making a difference as they will expand at same rate.

What are the axle and cranks made of?

steel and ally, respectively

when i used the hair dryer both of them got pretty hot

honeybadgerx - Member
Gently 'bounce' long arm allen key.
Repeat with gentle tapping from rubber mallet.
Repeat with larger lump hammer plus odd choice word.
Pause for thought.
Apply penetrating oil, make a cup of tea, take a calm breath and hit with hammer again.
Remove crank and place in vice, increasing strength of hammer blows and volume of language used.

Come to the realisation you're braying it in the wrong direction.
Have a man cry.

Turn round crank, apply short sharp blow with hammer and loosen pedal, taking as much skin off your knuckles as possible.

Have another cup of tea (leaving grease/bloodstains at points most likely to annoy missus).
Marvel in your own glory as a home mechanic.

Are you me? 😆

from a quick bit of research it appears aluminium expands faster than steel. So heating the crank would be ab it useless surely? Unless it helps to break the weld between the two materials. I would have though apply something REALLY cold to the aluminium axle would have more success?

daleftw - Member

Are you me?

When someone asks where I got the scars on my knuckles I tell them pedal club, but I'm not meant to talk about it.