icemilkcoffee 

I bought these Odyssey Twisted PC pedals for my son’s bike. They felt dry and rough out of the box so I opened it up to grease and adjust


The problem is that there is nothing between the cone nut and the locknut. When you tighten the lock nut the cone also turns with it. There is no keyed washer between the two like you’d expect to see. How do I hold the cone nut stationary while tightening the lock nut?

cyccommute 

Pedals are difficult. Too little room for two wrenches. Yes, you tighten the lock nut agains the cone nut like any cup and cone system. The problem is holding the cone stationary. The only way I’ve figured out how to do it is to push a screw driver against the flats of the cone so that the cone won’t turn and use a socket on the locknut. There usually isn’t a lot of room to work with.

_ForceD_

I have used very skinny needle nose pliers to hold the cone stationary from an angle, allowing me to get a socket on the lock nut.
Other advice is to jam the cone nut with a small screwdriver so that it can’t spin, and then using a socket to tighten the lock nut. But, the screwdriver might not allow you to get the socket on because the screwdriver thickens out and there isn’t room for the socket. So, I’ve used the flat part of an old blade spoke to jam the cone nut and that gives me enough space to get a thinner, deep socket onto the lock nut.

Dan

KCT1986

For Shimano pedals with this type of bearings, they have special tools to do the adjustment. Don't know what the sizes of each socket is & if it would be usable for any other makers' pedals.

maddog34

if you have a welder handy, you can determine the cone Hex size, cut down a deep socket, attach a handle to that remnant, then use a 1/4 drive 10, 12, or whatever to tighten the Jam nut... I've made a couple tools like that for valve adjustments over the years... Snap-on used to sell similar tools, but expect to cut off an arm and half a leg to buy one.....

( i usually just use a screwdriver to hold the cone... i set the driver in place, then TWIST the blade to wedge the Cone.... and it will take a few tries to get the right tension on the bearing.)

Andrew R Stewart 

At one time Shimano did make a tool for adjusting some of their pedal bearing preloads. Basically two thin wall sockets, one inside the other. Even still the process wasn't as slick as hubs are. Andy

GamblerGORD53

Get a refund. THey are GARBAGE. I bungled into similar. Those 1/16" bearings are totally STUPID. They can NEVER feel right with ZERO play possible.

icemilkcoffee 

I ended up using a tiny flat screw driver to try to immobilize the cone. It barely worked. But it certainly doesn't give me any reassuring feeling of tightness. We'll see how long this one holds.
The Shimano tool is still available it turns out, but it's too small for the 12mm/15mm nuts here.

SurferRosa

If the axle is keyed, you may still be able to get washers from Scott at SD bicycle garage.

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cyccommute 

To be clear, I didn’t say it worked well. Not many people I’ve ever run across like to rebuild pedals and usually don’t bother. Pedals…especially ones with loose bearings…are relatively cheap and not worth too much bother to rebuild. I have a number of cartridge bearing pedals that can be rebuilt but none of bearings have worn out so I haven’t had to replace them.

Koyote

I think you've just figured out that $20 pedals aren't really intended to be serviceable.

icemilkcoffee 

To think that I specifically chose a loose ball bearing pedal over the sleeve bushings, so I could fine tune and lubricate them.....

icemilkcoffee 

You know that term 'catridge bearing' - does it mean a sealed ball bearing or just a bushing?

streetsurfer

I recently used these to hold the cone while locking the adjustment in.

streetsurfer

Cartridge bearing is not loose bearings between a cone and cup, but a contained unit, sealed or not. With inner and outer races, and balls (usually in a cage) between them as a single unit.

maddog34

now that the topic is adrift... try just sliding a thin wall socket onto the cone hex and turning it outward 1/8 of a turn at a time... retest the tension, or lack thereof, between every 1/8 turn... USUALLY, this will NOT loosen the jam force, but WILL loosen the bearing drag...

the "no tabbed washer" design allows this trick... and sometimes the jam nut loosens too much due to really lousy thread quality control...

MOST new, "under $25" pedals arrive here with too-tight bearings... sigh...

i do similar with un-tabwashered Front wheel axle cones too... two cone wrenches to loosen, two 17mm wrenches to tighten... (ssshhh... don't tell anyone... ) correct jam tension feel is critical in this case.

cyccommute 

What streetsurfer said. The illustration on this page is a good example of a cartridge bearing…one with a seal and one without. Think of them like bearings in a cage but the cage is more elaborate.

grumpus

Jam a large flat screwdriver between a flat on the cone and the outer bearing race, tighten the locknut some, back off the cone to the right adjustment, see if you can tighten the locknut a little more.

xroadcharlie

Buying some bicycle pedals is a crap shoot. I believe quality control is the variable here. If you get lucky even cheap $15 pedals are fine for many riders. I bought a pair at the bike shop for that and the right pedal is good. Very light, Good grip on the shoe, almost zero resistance to turn, and no play. They overtightened the bearing on the left pedal and it has noticeable resistance and grinds when it turns.

I'm tempted to buy another pair of them if the left pedal has not been overtightened. I wouldn't mind spending $30 on these pedals if they worked correctly. I threw out the package and forgotthe brand. They don't even put the brand name on the pedal. So I see the same pedals at different stores and different brand names only on the package.