Bicycle Mechanics - Grease pedal threads?

My new pedals are arriving tomorrow and I'd like to be prepared. Do I need to grease the threads when installing my new pedals? White lithium grease? That's all I got. If so, what function does this serve?
Thanks in advance. I love this place.
-mattista

Grease 'em.

White lithium will do.

If you don't do it, you may never get the pedals out again without flame, force, and friends.

A dab on your finger . . . wipe a circle around the threads . . . you're good to go.

I typically place grease on threaded fasteners for both auto and bike applications, including the pedals. Grease does a couple of things:

1. makes installation smoother.
2. makes removal easier since it repels water and chance of rusting in the mating threads.
3. could help prevent dissimilar metals from corroding/sticking to each other (such as steel pedal threads mated to aluminum crank arms).

White lithium grease works great. For lubricating threads, probably any standard grease is fine.

My new pedals are arriving tomorrow and I'd like to be prepared. Do I need to grease the threads when installing my new pedals? White lithium grease? That's all I got. If so, what function does this serve?
Thanks in advance. I love this place.
-mattista

Grease 'em. Keeps them from getting stuck on there. The litium should be fine I woud think.

White Lithium will be fine. I prefer Marine Trailer Bearing grease myself

. Do I need to grease the threads when installing my new pedals?

A B S O L U T E L Y!!

one of my old bikes has the pedals fused in the cranks because I didn't grease them :(

Thanks for the help everybody. Let's just hope I can get my old pedals off --they were not greased. Oh well.

Hey great tip I read the other day on another post and I used it last night on old pedals that were fused onto old crank arms:

Pour boiling water over the pedal axle/ crank arm junction. The aluminum crank arm expands more/quicker when heated compared to the chromoly/ steel pedal axle. It worked great and only took a little force to remove.

Hey great tip I read the other day on another post and I used it last night on old pedals that were fused onto old crank arms:

Pour boiling water over the pedal axle/ crank arm junction. The aluminum crank arm expands more/quicker when heated compared to the chromoly/ steel pedal axle. It worked great and only took a little force to remove.

Dude, thanks for that one. I'm too stubborn to take the frame to the LBS (plus I don't like 'em there), and I really didn't think it was worth it to go out and buy some kind of blowtorch. I'm gonna try it in a little while!

As already mentioned, white lithium is fine. If you want to get really fancy there is a special lithium grease made for auto disc brake caliper slides compounded with molybdenum disulfide (moly or MoS2) and teflon. As I recall NAPA stores have it in tubes. These additives are the best for "anti sieze" and I always use it whenever threading steel into aluminum.

If you have Ti spindles than use Ti-antisieze and not grease

Hey everybody, good news: No problem removing the old pedals. I installed the new ones (with some grease) and with the slightly smaller toe clips I have no toe bite or "toverlap" as some call it. What a relief. Plus, they look great. It was rainy here today, but I can't wait to put some miles on tomorrow or this weekend.
Thanks,
mattista

There are a few other bolts and threads that should be greased, such as the bottom bracket cups, the seat pole bolt, the seat clamp bolt under the seat, the seat post itself, the crank bolts, the bottle cage bolts, the rear derailleur....

sorry.....:)

There are a few other bolts and threads that should be greased, such as the bottom bracket cups, the seat pole bolt, the seat clamp bolt under the seat, the seat post itself, the crank bolts, the bottle cage bolts, the rear derailleur....

sorry.....:)
Quite simple in general metal to metal (especially when threaded) = grease

i forgot brake caliper bolts and the front derailler clamp

grease is your friend :)

Quite simple in general metal to metal (especially when threaded) = grease

May be worth adding -- especially for anybody anal enough to use a torque wrench (ahem) -- that prescribed torque values consider that the fastener will be appropriately lubricated.

IOW: when they say 85 in-lb, they're talking about 85 in-lb on a bolt that was properly greased prior to attachment and torquing.

Here's (gee, what a shock) the skinny from Park Tool:

http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/thread.shtml

Try to ignore the fact that they said "Course [sic] threads" instead of coarse threads in a few spots. It's still good stuff....

And their take on torquing, generally: http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/torque.shtml

And now . . . I must get more coffee....

May be worth adding -- especially for anybody anal enough to use a torque wrench (ahem) -- that prescribed torque values consider that the fastener will be appropriately lubricated.

IOW: when they say 85 in-lb, they're talking about 85 in-lb on a bolt that was properly greased prior to attachment and torquing.

Here's (gee, what a shock) the skinny from Park Tool:

http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/thread.shtml

Try to ignore the fact that they said "Course [sic] threads" instead of coarse threads in a few spots. It's still good stuff....

And their take on torquing, generally: http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/torque.shtml

And now . . . I must get more coffee....
Tell him what he's won Johnny!
Great post

I don't have any heavy grease around. Will the Finish Line Krytox wax stuff work okay? I used it to install new pedals last night until I can get to the bike shop, but I'm wondering if I really need to put any different grease on them.

Do yourself a favor and get grease. Many of your bicycle service tasks will need it anyhow. You don't have to get it at the bike shop. Buy some at the hardware store, the auto parts store. Crap, you can probably find some ordinary grease at the convenience store or grocery store. It's not magical, though I've been told around these parts that really cheap grease uses soap as a base and you need to stay away from that.

Your best bet is if you can find a synthetic grease. It won't have a soap base and also won't suffer the long-term drying and flaking of lithium.

I use anti-seize paste on male pedal threads but grease will do.
I also used a torque wrench on my new Shimano pedals because they furnished a torque spec and the pedals have a female allen hex on the end of each threaded shank which I much prefer to using the inboard hex with a spanner. A good set of male metric allen socket bits is a good investment for working on a bike.
George

I don't have any heavy grease around. Will the Finish Line Krytox wax stuff work okay? I used it to install new pedals last night until I can get to the bike shop, but I'm wondering if I really need to put any different grease on them.
get some marine bearing grease. Its like 2.99 for a tub at home depot. Even the 6.99 tube of polylube from park which is also very nice can probably pack 100 wheels.

get some marine bearing grease. Its like 2.99 for a tub at home depot. Even the 6.99 tube of polylube from park which is also very nice can probably pack 100 wheels.
I'll back him up on the Marine Trailer Bearing grease. Good stuff and so cheap there's no excuse not to get some