Campag Athena Pedal Washer Fail

nosfour

I've had two new sets of cranks in as many weeks and both have the pedal inserts fail after just two rides?
set 1 = non drive side insert fallen out completely
set 2 = drive side starting to come loose( you can see a small piece of metal starting to come away in pic 2 washer/insert is loose)




has any had this happen/seen/heard opinions please?

bondurant

I'd hope that is an incredible stroke of bad luck but other than that can offer no useful opinion!

pblakeney

Likewise. 5 years and thousands of trouble free miles.

thecycleclinic

Those look like alloy cranks there is no thread insert to fall out.

From what I can see this is a sad case of threads failing due to improper installation ofthe pedals.

The facts it's happened to two cranks you own certainly supports that's.

Either the pedal has been cross threaded on not done up tight enough.

Pedal thread may also have been damaged prior to Installation thus damaging the thread in the crank.

amrushton

If you are lucky a helicoil might work but Malcolm can prob advise better. Otherwise new cranks I guess

nosfour

thecycleclinic said:

Those look like alloy cranks there is no thread insert to fall out.

From what I can see this is a sad case of threads failing due to improper installation ofthe pedals.

The facts it's happened to two cranks you own certainly supports that's.

Either the pedal has been cross threaded on not done up tight enough.

Pedal thread may also have been damaged prior to Installation thus damaging the thread in the crank.

For sure a conical washer not an insert.
Pedal threads and chainset threads have no damage.
Pedals were tightened up as much as torque wrench would let me.
I've that used in the past on a chorus group set, veloce, and the athena one before the replacements all never had this problem. looks like I'm going to have some chain rings and bolts left over to sell.

Thanks for the comments.

thecycleclinic

What cranks are they. Inserts are only used on carbon cranks. If the I serts have fallen out then that it dead cranks. That however is not clear from your photos.

If tour talking about a washer I sert falling out then put it back.

The issue here is your original post is not clear to us. It may be clear to you but not us.

nosfour

Alloy cranks and its a washer apologies for my confusion.
bit more digging I've found these.
not my cranks.

Ben6899

This happened on a pair of Veloce (2009) cranks I had. On the non-drive side I seem to recall. I had to keep on top of the pedal thread tightness, but it never caused issues, we're talking 1000s of kms between any attention.

They lasted until just before Christmas 2019.

i.bhamra

nosfour said:

For sure a conical washer not an insert.
Pedal threads and chainset threads have no damage.
Pedals were tightened up as much as torque wrench would let me.
I've that used in the past on a chorus group set, veloce, and the athena one before the replacements all never had this problem. looks like I'm going to have some chain rings and bolts left over to sell.

Thanks for the comments.

What is the max torque allowed by your torque wrench? I've never needed to apply much torque to pedals, literally just nip them up so that minimal effort required to remove them when necessary. Maybe you are over tightening them?

nosfour

I've been talking to a few people about this.
I decided to change my story and see the response.

If I say I hand tightened them and used a spanner to nip them up= not tight enough.
Use a torque wrench=too tight.

My torque goes up to 20
So far from the 30/40 recommended but tighter than doing it by hand and nipping it up. 😁

Both sets are being returned to be checked.
A refund/no refund I guess will decide if Im at fault which I am happy to accept if i am.
I can recoup the costs selling the rings, bolts, good arm and spider if I have to.

In the mean time I was reluctant to get a another campag crank so I'm looking at other options.

Shame as until now I've had no issues, but having it happen twice has made me nervous.
In no way am I saying campag make bad parts I've loved/love my campag groupsets and will continue to use them, well aside from the cranks for now 😊

I was just interested to see via this forum if it was a common/rare fault.

Thank you all for your comments 😁

Darius_Jedburgh

What a strange thread.