Wildwood 

So here is my story and question:
I didn't tighten my pedals tightly enough and the left side pedal came out at the end of a 60 mile day. I should have seen it unthreading but I didn't. So when I try to put the pedal in, I can hand thread it about 1/2 way but then need the pedal wrench.

Question: Since I know it should hand thread fully and just need to be tightened with the wrench, should I force the steel pedal thread into the aluminum Campy crank (I can get it cleanly 1/2 way), or should I take it to a shop before I strip the threads?

Thanks in advance.

bobotech

If you were riding it with a loose pedal, that can destroy the threads. I would put some oil on the pedal threads, start it and then tighten it down with the pedal wrench (I never use a pedal wrench, I just use a standard 15 mm wrench). You should then be able to really crank it down good. If you can't crank it down very firmly then chances are you destroyed the threads in the crank and it will need to be repaired properly.

If you just run a tap though the crank arm you are just going to remove more metal from already compromised hole and it will make things even worse.

bradtx

Wildwood, If you can finger tighten 1/2 way you can be reasonably sure the pedal's threads are aligned with the crank arm's threads. I'm pretty sure a LBS would use a tap to clean the second half of the crankarm's threads as long as there are no missing threads in the crankarm. You can also use the pedal to clean the crankarm's threads by tightening finger tight and using a wrench rotate the pedal bolt 90 degrees, back off 45 degrees, repeating untill the pedal bolt eventually fully seats. The tap is the better choice, IMHO.

Brad

Wildwood 

thanks guys.

Filthy monkey

If your still worried after the sound advise above, once you have repaired the threads either with the pedal or tap. Use a very small amount of loctite.