Pedals will not budge

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Bond

New Member
I want to put new pedals on my dawes giro 400 but the pedals will not budge when I am trying to take them off. I tried Both pedals and both directions but nothing. Can anybody suggest ways I can try that I haven't thought of?
 

ASC1951

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
You can go for various heating and cooling techniques - cranks are usually aluminium and pedal axles steel - but I must say I never found that very effective. You can also take both cranks off and put them in a soft-jawed vice to make them easier to work on.

What are you using to undo them? You very often need a 12" pedal spanner or something with similar leverage, if they have been allowed to get tight. If you put a piece of tube or something on the end of the spanner, you should be able to exert enough force to get any pedal off.

[I have a spare pedal to check the thread on before I use real force. Just in case I'm actually trying to tighten the one on the bike.]
 

02GF74

Über Member
pretty sure the RH is RH trhead and LH is LH thread (opposite to BB). no doubt someone wil quote Sheldon Brown to confirm.

Pedal spindles can be a bugger to undo - you need spanner and if your spindle has it, an allen key from the other side, then a big lever to turn them. Often the seize big time but should be undoable. Try penetrating fluid .e.g plusGas from both sides of the spindlem having cleaned them to lalow the fluid to penetrate.

Heat may help too.
 

02GF74

Über Member
ASC1951 said:
You can go for various heating and cooling techniques - cranks are usually aluminium and pedal axles steel - but I must say I never found that very effective.


The spindle has a shoulder and over time that can gouge into the softer aluminium alloy. Heat will make the aluminium expand more than steel making this interface even harder to undo
 
C

chillyuk

Guest
I generally find that sitting on the bike, attach the spanner then a good wallop with my boot shifts most things. But them I am 18 stone and have size 12 feet. Don't half hurt your ankle when the spanner slips. A smear of copper ease on reassembly will help with removal next time.
 

dodgy

Guest
Bond said:
I want to put new pedals on my dawes giro 400 but the pedals will not budge when I am trying to take them off. I tried Both pedals and both directions but nothing. Can anybody suggest ways I can try that I haven't thought of?

You're always onto a loser doing that, look up the required direction before hefting away at a gert big spanner possibly the wrong way :angry:

Drive side is a right hand thread, non-drive side is a left hand thread.

Now you can try again with some conviction and not inadvertently tighten it!

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=83
 

Norm

Guest
Talk of right hand and left hand threads mean little to me. I've found the easiest way to remember which way to turn it is, with the spanner downwards onto the nut, the top of the spanner should turn towards the back wheel.
 

nigelb

New Member
A lbs may have the right spanner etc to do this more easily?

When I popped into our Halfords (Cambridge) I did ask for tips removing pedals, and they said bring the bike in, they've a huge spanner and a clamp, job done!

Haven't tried it yet,mind, smearing grease into the ends of mine freed them upenough to use :-)

Nige
 

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
"Right is right, left is wrong"

In other words, the right hand pedal comes off the way you'd expect; for t'other, you have to screw in the 'wrong' direction - ie, clockwise.
 

GilesM

Legendary Member
Location
East Lothian
02GF74 said:
pretty sure the RH is RH trhead and LH is LH thread (opposite to BB). no doubt someone wil quote Sheldon Brown to confirm.

That's definately correct.

02GF74 said:
Pedal spindles can be a bugger to undo - you need spanner and if your spindle has it, an allen key from the other side, then a big lever to turn them. Often the seize big time but should be undoable. Try penetrating fluid .e.g plusGas from both sides of the spindlem having cleaned them to lalow the fluid to penetrate.

Heat may help too.

I find taking the cranks off and putting them in a soft jawed vice is the best way, and use an allen key like this,
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/p...bit-set/path/screwdrivers-bits-hex-key-sets-2
you can then get these seperately, just the size you need, the advantage is that you can put a long bar on them.
 

accountantpete

Brexiteer
Some pedals also have a hex key slot at the end of the axle so you can use both ways together in order the get more leverage.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Tighten towards the front of the bike and loosen towards the back.

Now do this: remove the computer and turn the bike upside-down. Work out which way you need to turn the pedal spindle. Now set the spanner on the flats of the spindle so that it more or less parallels the crank, i.e. the end of the spanner is effectively adjacent to the bottom bracket. With the spanner in this position a hefty shove will not cause the cranks to turn but you will be applying leverage through the equivalent of around 175mm of the spanner.

This method will shift any pedal, easy ones can be done with the bike upside-down but really tight ones might need you to set the bike upright, get astride the bike and actually stand on the end of the spanner, with your foot right next to the bottom bracket bolt. In this position the crank and spanner would be forwards and you would be pushing downwards, i.e clockwise on the left of the bike and anti on the right. Got it?

Don't waste time with penetrating fluid, it doesn't penetrate a stuck thread until the bond is broken and space appears between the threads.
 

02GF74

Über Member
BigSteev said:
Not if your bike has left hand drive.


really?

the crank and pedals would still move in the same direction so should have the same threading.

only way it could be true is if the pedals had to be turned backwards to go forwards, an unlikely situation unless you plan to join a cricus.

if you were to make a LH drive bike, you would need to retap the cranks and insert helicoils to keep the threading same as for RH drive bike, unless someone makes LH drive chainsets, I've yet to hear of any.
 
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