Pedal removal

lotus49

I recently bought a second hand Triban Junior for my daughter as she is really keen to have a road bike like Daddy's. I would like to remove the pedals as they are rather battered but it's clear that the previous owner didn't grease them before fitting them.

I have a proper long pedal spanner but all I am doing is damaging the pedal nut. I have tried WD40 but, despite the fact that the bike cannot be that old and is generally in excellent condition, the cranks and the pedal axles have clearly corroded together. Both my ordinary open-ended spanner and my pedal spanner just slip on the nut and I am going to round it completely if I carry on like this. I am definitely turning it the right way (I even checked on my own bike to make sure I wasn't doing anything stupid).

Does anyone have any bright ideas?

keezx

The pedal is stuck because of aluminum-oxide.
WD40 or whatever oily stuff doesn't do anything with that.
Ammonium does, try to dip for several hours.

team47b

extend your spanner with a tube or put the pedal spanner on in line with the crank and use your foot to apply pressure using your whole body weight (put your daughter on your shoulders first if your a lightweight like me):D

If you are rounding off the pedal axle then perhaps you need a better fit/quality spanner which should be a tight fit and won't allow rounding off. Aluminium crank and hardened steel pedal threads cause galling, a kind of welding process, heat can cause the ali to expand faster than the steel, although I have never resorted to this or household ammonia!

keezx

Brute force + Ammonia should do the job.
If a spanner does not fit anymore, strip the pedal, take the crank of the bike and put the axle in a vise.

danlikesbikes

Can always try a bit of heat too if the above doesn't help

lotus49

Great stuff, thanks for the replies.

I don't think a better spanner will do the trick. I think that the tolerances on the pedal axle are a bit off because I did initially try to use a good quality (Snap-on) but rather short spanner and it wasn't a tight fit. However, the ammonia trick sounds promising and I'll give it a go.

team47b

In the automotive world they use brake fluid to penetrate aluminium and steel that are 'welded' together, if you decide to try this keep it away from paintwork/pets/small children etc :shock:

lapavoni10

I would go with the heat option.
If the pedals are trashed anyway, you may as well remove them from the axle and get a decent purchase on the axle with a pipe-wrench after you apply the heat.