Bicycle Mechanics - Removing Pedals

I have got an old Schwinn Traveler that I have aquired and am in the process of cleaning it up. I went to take the pedals and cranks off to shine them up and to have better aceess to some of the body about the crank case. I took the nut off and beat and beat on the thing with a rubber mallet and it won't budge. Any ideas or tricks to get this thing off?

Your description doesn't sound like any bicycle crankset I've ever seen. I think what you may be banging on is a crank cotter (http://sheldonbrown.com/cotters.html), a sort of peg that hold the crank arms onto OLD bikes (that article explains what to do with them).

So I think what you're trying to remove are the crank arms, not the pedals themselves, is that right?

See this Bicycle Glossary (http://sheldonbrown.com/glossary.html) for the correct terminology, it'll make it easier to explain your problem. And don't go banging on bike parts without a clear understanding of exactly what they are and how they are attached to other parts... otherwise you'll destroy a lot of components in short order.

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I took the nut off and beat and beat on the thing with a rubber mallet and it won't budge. Any ideas or tricks to get this thing off?


ouch.

Those bikes have cotterless. If you are refering to the crank nut (that is screwed into the axle) and are hammering on the crank, you are potentially damaging your cranks.

What you need is a crank extractor.

I thought also you were working on an old cottered crank, but don't think so.

Does the crank look like this ?
http://www.parktool.com/tools/CWP_6BIG.shtml
if yes, then the tool shown is what you need. Using a maillet will damage the crank.
Oh, and once you take the bolt off, don't forget to take the washer out also before you engage the crank extractor, and engage and screw the extractor in by hand first before using a wrench to avoid damaging the thread.

See the following reference http://www.sheldonbrown.com/cotters.html for "cottered cranks".