One, on Neco and some Shimano hubs, they have this annoying band on the drive side. I assume it is to hold the bearing cartridge or something. But not much space for the crank tapers.





And two, how do you get the axle unit back into the SPD-SL pedals? Or take them out?

I think you need one of these. But it's been so long I don't remember if there a set of flats between this nut and the body or you just hold the body

There's a fairly cheap tool for SPD pedals of that sort, the TL-PD40.
I got mine from the local shop for a few bucks. Works nicely with a bench vise.




also.. it took me a bit to learn that "overhauling" such a SPD pedal is usually done by pulling the axle assembly, injecting some new grease into the bottom of the body, and reinstalling the axle assembly. The old grease will ooze out around the seal during the axle re-installation.

Steve in Peoria

Just saw that tool on eBay. Are there any metal ones. Are the plastic ones flimsy?

I've used mine around a dozen times, and it doesn't seem to show any wear. Seems good enough for home use.
No idea whether there is a metal version. I imagine that [MENTION=159681]Bianchigirll[/MENTION]'s TL-PD30 is the shop version.

It did occur to me that a properly sized socket might do the job too... until I counted the splines and realized that there were 10. I'm pretty sure that I don't have a set of 10 point sockets.

Steve in Peoria

steelbikeguy OH I forgot about that one.

Im not sure why Shimano changed that collar fitting for the Dura Ace one to the current one.

I looked closer at the TL-PD30 and realized that it fits an 8 spline pedal, and the TL-PD40 that I have fits a 10 spline pedal. Good heavens.. I guess that's why the TL-PD30 says that it is for Dura-Ace.
Why does Shimano do this sort of nonsense??

Steve in Peoria

$.

Where are the threads on the right pedal assembly?

That BB with the collar is for a particular crank.

I assume 9/16? Haven't tried it yet in a crankset, but I don't think it is a 1/2 inch (I assume that was what you were asking?)

Poop. Must be a thin one of sorts. I was hoping to use it for a build for sale.

The collars came into being mainly because of the oversized frame tubing that started being used for seat tubes, in conjunction with triple chainrings.

If the crankarm settles inward far enough, the front derailer may not retract inward far enough against an oversized seat tube to effect robust shifting down to the smallest chainring, hence the collars came into being to prevent crankarms settling inward and front derailers no longer quite doing their job.

I haven't tried many different crankarms on the collared crank spindles, so I'm not sure how good of an interference fit can be achieved using this or that crankarm from this or that era. You want to achieve probably a bare minimum of 20 ft-lbs of bolt torque though before the crankarm contacts the collar.

Compressing the collar heavily in a good bench vise, alternately against one pair of flats and then the other pair of flats, may loosen it so it can be pried off.

If that bit of soft plastic stops the crank from being fully tightened, you'll be buying a new crankarm.

So if it's used (in the situation you describe) to do so, the axle is too short.

FYSA - The TL-PD40 shown in post #4 came with the pedls. I have one I keep in the box to remind me what it is for.

Are you referring to the black "collar" on the pedals, the pictured bottom bracket or perhaps the "Nico and Shimano hubs" that I quote the OP as having initially mentioned?

The black collar on the Shimano cartridge BB's is made of strong, seemingly hardened steel, and as I mentioned, may require quite forceful methods to remove since you can't really just go blasting it with a torch to loosen it.
As it is provided as a crankarm stop, it is fixed quite solidly onto the spindle.

If you found such a piece made of plastic, what purpose could it serve?

The spindle may in some cases act "too short", as you suggest. Those cases are where 1) Hard jump landings leading to the taper fit loosening, requiring further bolt tightening, and 2) use of oversized seat tube, meaning that as the crank walks up the spindle tapers, you will run out of lo-limit adjustment and the frond derailer won't move in far enough.
Use of a longer spindle length as a solution was actually used, before these collars became standard, but caused problems with excess chainline.
The problem was more of an off-road issue, again because of riders landing from jumps or hitting G-outs with the crankarms horizontal, pushing the square-taper interface to it's designed-in torque limits.

Firstly, can’t believe I missed saying “Some Shimano hubs”. 🙄

Secondly, does this mean that for practical purposes, most cranks are not going to be happy with the bottom bracket assembly?