Adjusting bearings on Shimano Saint PD-M820 pedals

Still spinning smoothly but my drive side pedal has a bit of a wobble – I’m guessing the bearing needs nipping up.

Has anyone done this?

The instructions I’ve found so far for just suggest removing the axle and pumping it full of grease but I can’t see that is going to take out any movement.

Looks like I need the shimano tool to undo the gold collar then adjust the bearings at the other end of the axle?
As usual with Shimano, spare parts ludicrously expensive – £40 for each axle assembly (shortly before Covid I’m pretty sure I only paid £60 for the complete pedals)

I’ve got a set of those pedals. Must be 10 years old. Not my favourite flat pedals so not had huge amounts of use, currently on the bike son has at uni with him. I recall adjusting the bearings at some point in the past. Couldn’t tell you what I did other than I’ve got the shimano pedal tool and managed to take them apart and put them back together in a usable condition so it can’t be too hard to do.
Having said that I wouldn’t buy spare parts for them when nukeproof plastic pedals are £40 and a better pedal to use.

Buy the tool to undo the gold collar, it’s plastic and costs a few £, I put the tool in a vice and you should be able to remove the axle by hand.

The two nuts are how you adjust any play, it’s just a cup and cone system so can be disassembled, re-greased and put back together. There’s one nut to adjust the cone and the other is a locknut. I put the axle in the Shimano tool when doing the locknut up as it hold the axle steady so you can use two spanners.

All in all it’s a simple job that doesn’t take long. If you only put grease in and don’t adjust the cones then they won’t last as long as they could and it will cost far less than a standard pedal rebuild kit of bushings and cartridge bearings.

It’s a 5 min job tops with the cheap plastic tool. Beats having to replace bushing/bearing kits relatively frequently with other pedals.

Do the grease repack first. My XT M785s started to get a little wobble and this fixed it. Lots of rides later they’re still fine. Shimano pedals are virtually indestructible.

Regreasing alone will not remove any play.

It adjusted properly and greased these pedals should last a long time – no need for spares. Grease squirted into the body will flush out the old grease, no need to disassemble, just adjust.

virtually indestructible.

The very first pair of spds, that I bought in 1995, died a couple of years ago of a broken axle.

@cynic-al

It adjusted properly and greased these pedals should last a long time

That’s what I’d assumed but a load of results from here saying Shimano SPDs basically disposable – I’m guessing just people who don’t know how to adjust cup and cone and run them into the ground…

This does seem higher maintenance than the Times I used to use where I’ve never had to change a bearing. (these Shimano are only just over a year old)

you all lie, there is some weird dark art to fixing Shimano pedals – one that i have not astered. I’ve got a set of 820’s myself, they’re relatively new so spinning lovely. I had an old set of the XT’s with platforms and there was a rubber seal that disintegrated and just meant the things continually died. I also could not get the buggers to spin nicely without play..

i bid ye good luck OP – and to all others – witchery i tell theee.

@b33k34 in the last the cheap SPD’s have been barely more £ than cleats so a lot of people treated them as disposable.

I think that type of maintenance is beyond quite a few also.

@sui
I’m in the same boat. Been through 5 or 6 sets of sods over the years. One always gets play continuously and then dies, despite adjusting. Very very far from bulletproof, but name me a pedal that is? Still won’t use anything else though. 😁

There is not only knowledge, but skill required to master the pre-load of a cup and cone bearing.

Ok. So having serviced both my sets it looks like I overtightened the drive side and ride it today with it feeling lumpy as hell. I’m guessing that’s finished the balls. How do I find out what size I need to buy to replace them?

I expect it won’t have damaged much, it’s all hardened steel, I’d loosen them off and see.

Doesn’t sound like anyone had the same problem as me where I tried to service mine and the cheap, rubbish tool was destroyed by one of the pedals, the axle was so stiff I had to clamp down on it with a set of mole-grips in order to remove it. This ovalised the collar. then having cleaned, re-set the collar on the bearings, packed with grease, reassembled, done my best to get the collar back to something approximating round and re-fit on the bike, they still wobbled. So I rode the bike anyway and I’ll see if I can get a replacement set of innards for the pedal as I like ’em.

The shimano tool is utter crap though.

Doesn’t sound like anyone had the same problem as me where I tried to service mine and the cheap, rubbish tool was destroyed by one of the pedals, the axle was so stiff I had to clamp down on it with a set of mole-grips in order to remove it. This ovalised the collar.

One of the four I undid was overttight. I was holding the pedal in a vice and the older, slightly worn, adjustable spanner was slipping. a newer, less sloppy spanner got it underdone but I can see how they’d jam.

Somewhere I found while looking for bearings was listing just the collars for sale (rather than the entire pedal assembly which is £40!)

The shimano tool is utter crap though.

Looking at the spares available the older pedals had a plastic collar so a plastic tool probably made sense. Now that it’s a metal collar the tool should be metal too.

Bearing size appears to be 3/32″
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/pedals-cleats/shimano-pdm324-steel-ball-bearings-332-62pcs-y41n98030/

Interestingly the manual says under ‘tech tips’
– the rotating parts are fastened when the axle unit is set into the pedal, Adjust them slightly loosely before set up.

Just to make that dark art a little harder…

I found that by putting the tool snugly but not too tightly in a vice and then turning the pedal was the best way. You could always use an adjustable spanner on the pedal, it’s then metal on metal and can be turned slowly to crack it loose.

@cynic-al

I’m now entering the

witchery i tell theee.

camp on these.

First go made do with the spanners I’d got – drive side pedal went tight after ridding as mentioned above. Bought a set of thin flat spanners to make it easier to adjust. As you predicted, bearings seemed fine. Adjusted to run smoothly, locked up (what I thought) was tight. Rode round the block and they were fine but by the end of 40k yesterday the drive side was overly tight again. I see the Shimano instructions say “The rotating parts are fastened when the axle unit is set into the pedal. Adjust them slightly loosely before setup.”

But they were almost imperceptibly loose when I started off this process to remove the play from the drive side! I’m heading towards the ‘buy something with cartridge bearings’ approach….

any tips?

Mine started making a horrible clicking noise yesterday, will strip down tonight but I suspect something is nadgered as I did up the cone as tight as I could before it bound completely and it still wobbled when fitted into the pedal body.

I see a new set of pedals in my future as a replacement for that assembly is 40+ quid and no-one seems to have stock 🙁

Yep, they’re shot. It looks like whatever held the lower set of bearings in place had disintegrated as there were loose bearings all over the place between the spindle and the outer shell.

Bugger! Suggestions for anywhere that might have stock of replacement parts?

Adjusted to run smoothly, locked up (what I thought) was tight. Rode round the block and they were fine but by the end of 40k yesterday the drive side was overly tight again. I see the Shimano instructions say “The rotating parts are fastened when the axle unit is set into the pedal. Adjust them slightly loosely before setup.”

So tried adulting them to be very slightly loose and they were still had a bit of movement at the end of a 10 mile ride…..

Thread resurrection..

Despite me extolling the virtues of my Saint Pedals, I’ve managed to knacker the drive side one ☹ .

Having done the service bit, of just nipping up the cup’n’cone and then packing out the body with loads of grease, the pedals ran fine for a few miles, and then they decided to start seizing as I pedalled. I could back pedal and it would loosen, but then quickly seize again. I managed to get to a shop so I could remove the axel, but something was clearly stuck, and in undoing it I mashed the bearings and somehow got the washer/sleeve stuck in the pedal – how does this happen??

I’m certain the pedals aren’t that old, but sods law dictates that I can find no record of where and when I purchased the buggers, I’m sure they are under 2 years but who knows – I’ve even looked through old photos to try and pinpoint a time.

Back to my point and question. As I’ve managed to get the washer/sleeve stuck (the silver bit at the end with the hole in it in the picture up there /\ ), is it salvageable, can I return it somewhere, do I just suck it up butter cup and buy a new set (which seems really wasteful)..

Has anyone got a drive side saint they don’t need 😊

I think at this point you ought to quit whilst you’re ahead and find a shop willing to adjust your shimano pedals when they develop a bit of play.

There’s definitely something up with that Saint SPD generation’s axles. I had 2 different pairs in the past in which the RH nut wouldn’t stay tight, gave up in the end and got a full refund. More people and publications report the same.
They just released the new Saint M821 version and kind of make a big deal about the “increased axle durability (vs the PD-M820)”.

@Scienceofficer this has been said by various parties many times, however ££ are always na issue

@zezaskar yep, even the website mentions this, so entirely feasible it was/is just a dodgy axle design – in which case im assuming you can get the new axles and they will fit the old bodies.

Im going to see if i can get an “inner bearing” puller and see if i can get the body-cup out, failing that im going back to XT.

that’s interesting, looks like theyve added an extra collar next to the lock bush on the axle..

https://si.shimano.com/api/publish/storage/pdf/en/dm/MCPD001/DM-MCPD001-02-ENG.pdf

even the website mentions this, so entirely feasible it was/is just a dodgy axle design – in which case im assuming you can get the new axles and they will fit the old bodies.

So it does https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/product/component/saint-m820/PD-M821.html and I can’t see any externally visible differences based on the photo. Given Shimano’s axle designs must surely be nearly the same across the ranges it’s hard to know what they managed to screw up with this one but everyone I’ve met who’s run them has had issues and has movement in the drive side pedal. And people who run other shimano pedals don’t seem to have the same issue with the pedals they have on other bikes….

Not sure how to find out whether the axles are interchangeable (or whether they’ll be an economic replacement).

I think at this point you ought to quit whilst you’re ahead and find a shop willing to adjust your shimano pedals when they develop a bit of play.

Hard to know what they’re going to do – I’ve tried repeatedly with mine, bought some thin spanners just for this one job, done the locknut up *(***** tight and still getting issues.

Well spotted @Sui , seems like they modified the nut by shortening it and placing some sort of spacer in between it and the bearing. I’d bet they’re trying to insolate the nut from the bearing rotation

so definitely one extra part, but not labelled and not really apparent what it is- I’d have thought the issue is down about parts b and c.

What’s the likelihood that the axle off a cheap pair of SPD’s fits? Worth trying if you have a spare pair hanging around