Amt0571

I have a pedal totally stuck to the crank arm. It only has an Allen socket and no flats for a wrench. It wouldn't give way, so I used an Allen key with an extension and the threads stripped.

No big deal I thought, as I didn't care about destroying the pedal. I proceded to strip the pedal to the axle and stuck the axle on a bench. It slipped every time. Then I used a torch on the crank, and nothing. It wouldn't move.

And finally, after an hour of unsuccessful efforts, this happened:




Any option left to salvage the cranks instead of buying new ones?

Iride01 

Cast iron/steel does that. Cheaper more so than better quality alloys and pours. But all castings can do that when stressed enough.

FastJake

I'm sorry you haven't had any luck and that I don't have any advice. I've dealt with stuck pedals in the past. Not too long ago I learned about pedal washers, and still wonder why they're not standard on every single pedal/crank assembly.

aggiegrads

Were you able to take the crank arm off of the bike? Most people don’t think of putting the tool in the vise and putting force on the part, but it usually works best.

I see a wood handle in the photo. Is that from a hammer? Did that play a part in the destruction of the vise?

Modern vises have improved over the cheap cast versions. Yost and Capri both have forged vises in the 150 USD range, but I don’t know what is available in Catalunya.

Amt0571

Yes, I took both cranks off the bike. I couldn't put the tool in the vise since the pedal Allen socket was rounded from previous tries. What I did was use the length of both cranks as a lever, but the pedal slipped no matter how tight the vise was.

I used the hammer to hit the pedal spindle in hope of freeing it, but had no luck.

There are good vises available here, however I'm frustrated, as I was going to sell this bike for 250€ to my uncle and it seems it's going to cost me half that to get it working again. In fact I was removing the pedals because my uncle wanted flat pedals instead of clipless.

I'm going to try bringing it to the LBS tomorrow and hope for the best. 😔

aggiegrads

If you have a grinder, it might help to bring flats into the spindle so that it can be held in a vise better.

Bona sort.

MudPie

You can also try a penetrating oil to loosen up the parts. It’s a cheap try.

Crankycrank

Just to be sure, you are turning it in the correct direction? A couple things to try. Put the crank arm in the freezer for about 3 hours and then pour some boiling water on the crank surrounding the axle and if you have a plumbers pipe wrench you should be able to get enough grip to turn it. Since you're OK with using a torch this may be better but the hot water is safer. This may help just a little to break it loose. Also you could try drilling out the axle with a drill bit just big enough not to hit the threaded exterior of the axle. Very good chance that it would work to make it break loose.

mikeread

I had this problem once years ago, nothing would shift the pedal spindle and the hex had rounded out.

I got a mate to weld a large nut onto the pedal spindle (pedal was scrap anyway) and with a large spanner and pipe and the crank in a sturdy padded vice we loosened it off. Once the seal was broken it screwed out easy by hand.

Make sure you are turning it the correct way, it can be confusing when you are working from the back and you have to account for LH or RH threads on each side.

MudPie

Very important detail!

Amt0571

Don't have a grinder unfortunately. But your "Bona sort" made me happy. Didn't expect it here. Do you speak catalan?

Amt0571

Yes. Did that too.

I'll try the freezer thing.

Oh, and yes, I'm turning it in the correct direction. Right is right, and left is wrong.

Amt0571

That's a good idea. I'll look for someone who can solder.

aggiegrads

No, I wish I spoke more. We have a friend who has a house in Sitges and I have been there several times. I love that part of the world.

Amt0571

This world is small. I live half an hour from Sitges 😉

dsbrantjr

I use stainless pedal washers and Tef-Gel on all of my pedals and other dissimilar metal joints; saves a lot of cursing and tears.

aggiegrads

In Barcelona or SW of Sitges? We loved Tarragona, and my grandmother’s family is from Reus.

Amt0571

Neither. I live in Gelida. Inland between Sitges and Barcelona. Tarragona is really nice.

Amt0571

I only ever used pedal washers in my SRAM rival cranks, as they came with them. Never had a pedal size this bad however.

First time I removed pedals I had a similar issue with this cranks, but I managed to unscrew it in less than half an hour with the vise. Maybe it's something particular with truvativ stylo cranks. Surprisingly both times happened at the DS pedal.

number1bike

I had two stuck petals a month back.

What I did was took the crank arms off the bike with the petals and liberal use of penetrating oil. Put the crank arm in the vise parallel to the vice jaws, with the petal sticking up. Brace the vice jaws so that the vise's job was to just hold the crank firm and the vice cannot turn. Next, disassembled the petal so that just the axle of the petal is sticking up. Last, with a 36" pipe wrench and 48" cheater pipe over the pipe wrench handle, get the pipe wrench to dig into the axle just above where the inner bearings ride [make sure nobody is behind you when you start pulling].

One of two things will happen. Either the axle will turn or the axle will snap. I got lucky, the axle turned in both cases and just had to rebuild the pedals.

andrewclaus

Well, not exactly. Left is right on the left (non drive side) pedal.

Barry2 

Just to be clear...... The above is NOT sarcasm.

One pedal is Right Hand threaded, the other pedal is Left Hand threaded.

The Non-Drive side pedal is extracted by turning it CLOCKWISE when viewed from the Pedal Side.
IF you are using a HEX wrench in the BACK side of the non-drive side arm, that becomes ANTICLOCKWISE

AND if you place the pedal shaft in a vice (assuming you still had a vice) you pull the non-drive side crank arm CLOCKWISE.

All the best

Barry

Amt0571

I know it's not sarcasm and it's a common mistake with pedals. I was really turning in the correct direction.

JoeTBM 

There is a big difference between soldering and welding

Amt0571

Sorry, I understood what you said (and know the difference). I'm not a native english speaker and in my mother tongue "weld" is "soldar". My fault!