MrEaves

I was changing my pedals today, right one came off fine.

Left one, Evans must have tightened this thing beyond belief. It is only around 4 weeks old and no matter what I did I could not budge it, I have now just about buggered the head and it is practically round. Anyone got any tips?

I have taken the case off the pedal so I am just down to the middle spindle, I am going to try and drill a hole though that (at a right angle) to put a bar in it to try and leverage it off. I tried a quick drill but it is like drilling diamond with a straw, I may need a new bit tomorrow.

Any other tips?

Bloody thing....

Sheldon Brown

The left pedal has a left hand (left foot?) thread.

Sheldon "We've All Done It" Brown

MrEaves

I am taking it off (or rather trying to) by unscrewing clockwise (as I am looing at it), which is correct as far as I am aware.

Homebrew01

Correct - the left pedal is clockwise to remove. Are you using a good quality 15mm wrench ? Usually the wrench would get ruined before the pedal. A few pedals have an allen wrench fitting inside the axle, but it's pretty rare.

diff_lock2

I have the same problem on my mtb... one day im just going to go over to a friends house and use his vise...

vpiuva

Your LBS will probably have a loonng pedal wrench.

well biked

Put a pipe over the end of the wrench to use as a "cheater bar" for more leverage. Or use carefully placed hammer blows to the end of the wrench-

ryder47

Reminds me of my mom's '71 Chrysler one night on a high school date. The lug nuts on the passenger side had left hand threads. Who knew???

robo

I wonder if somebody in the past tried to remove that pedal and didn't know about the left hand threading... and ended up tightening it on like crazy.

MudPie

A pedal wrench is often the solution: https://www.blueskycycling.com/produc...rench-Tool.htm

Even with such a wrench, it could be tough. Since one of the pedal is off, you can slip a large diameter pipe over the crank arm and use a wrench (perhaps with another pipe on it for added leverage) and work the two together. Leverage and steady force is your best friend. It also cannot hurt to apply a thread penetrant (like Liquid Wrench, WD40, or PBlaster) and let it soak for hours.

When you reinstall the pedal, grease the threads and you need not use gorilla strength to torque it. Also, a couple of times a year, I will "crack open" the threads on each pedal and reinstall.

Cadfael

But the OP has stated that he has rounded of the flats... yes? So a pedal spanner or wrench is not gonna grip. He has removed the cage and is now left with the spindle firmly attached to his crank.

I am gonna get shot down here I know... but I assume once you get this spindle out, you are not gonna put it back? If you destroy it whilst removing it it will not be a big issue?

If so... get some penetrating oil on it, WD40 will do... then use a small pair of stiltsons (pipe wrench) to grip the spindle and get it turning. If by a small chance you are gonna put it back, use the stiltsons in the center of the spindle that is not part of the inner bearing races. If you can get the crank off by any chance, put it in a vice ... but make sure the vice does not mark the surface of the crank... wrap the crank in a rag, or place some wood on either side of the vice flats.

If you cannot remove the crank...

The suggestion to put a section of pipe over the other crank is a good idea, this can then brace against the floor, but the bike must be held down, get someone to sit on it! And you can also place a section of pipe over the stiltsons handle to give you more torc.

graeme

The spindle may be hardened steel, so difficult to drill with a HSS steel bit. Your bar may just bend as I couldn't see it being very thick. You could try a stud remover - roller type, if the spindle diameter is suitable.

Akadis

The threads may already be partially sheared due to over-tightening, or due to a heavy blow while cycling. It happened to me pedalling through a corner and hitting the pedal hard on the road . The spindle appeared slightly bent but it wasn't - the threads were sheared )

Here's how I would go about getting it off: Remove crank, grip the pedal spindle very tight in a metal vice on the remains of the flats, heat crank to 100 degrees C, hammer the crank with a heavy mallet in the correct direction. If it is very tight all the way while unscrewing then bad luck, the threads are probably stripped. If it unscrews easily after loosening then yippee!

MrEaves

Thanks for all the replies. The bike is new so it could have only been over tightened by Evans on its 4 week bed in service. As I said the right one came off no problem.

I didn't mind about trashing the pedals as I was replacing the factory pedals with SPD's.

In the end I drilled through the pedal arm, then used a strong peice of steel through this to turn it off. It came off fairly easily.

I had to get a titanium bit (£5 for the one), and it took around 3 or 4 minutes to drill, and after that the bit was shafted.