Raghavcd100

Hi, I own a Hercules topgear 5 speed. The other day I had to change the pedals on my bike, changing the right one was easy as they were normal threaded and didn't require much torque for wrenching it out, however the left pedal was too tight and I went ape **** by placing an open wrench 14mm on the pedal nut and and banged the other end of the spanner with a hammer. This has now made the pedal crank unit wobble slightly when jiggled, meaning to say it has some play. How can I fix this. I'm really kicking myself now for what I did. Can the experts please guide me.

DrIsotope

That pedal threads on the opposite direction-- the left pedal threads off clockwise, the right pedal counter-clockwise. So I think you may well have pulled some threads out of your crank arm.

dabac

I'm not sure what you mean by "pedal crank unit".
But trying to unscrew a pedal the wrong way with great force may well have damaged something - usually the crank arm threads.

sweeks

It's the classic "curse of the Wright Brothers". You've stripped the threads on the crank arm, which is (usually) made of aluminum and so is softer than the threads on the pedal itself. You will need to replace the left crank or have the threads repaired. Ask your local bike shop.
Steve
EDIT: If the crank arm itself is wiggly, the crank-fixing bolt (holding the crank to the bottom bracket) may be loose or damaged.

Hoopdriver

OP seems to indicate that he/she knows that the left was different than right, which was described as "normal threaded". Nevertheless, whenever something seems tougher than you think it should be, it's time to reflect on the idea that you are doing something wrong.

Bummer. If just the threads, you may be able to fix with an insert. If you bent or cracked the crank it will have to be replaced.

fietsbob

loose crank fixing bolts on square taper cranks with aluminum arms will also allow damage to the crank arm,
then you need to buy a new crank set.

VegasTriker

It would be really interesting to see an actual picture of the bike. At one post, you probably can't directly submit a picture but you can give links to an outside photo sharing site like Flickr. The setup of the cranks will help people here understand what might be wrong with the drive train.

I hadn't heard of the brand before. It shows up in three places as a brand owned for years by Raleigh in Great Britain, now owned by Tube Investments of India (currently makes the brand) and obscurely as a brand owned or maybe just imported by the Cleveland Welding Company. All of the newest bikes are 18 speed so I was wondering how old your bike is.

Raghavcd100

Hi all,
I did follow the clockwise to uncrew orientation for the left pedal, however since the threads had frozen and needed more torque to undo it, I used a hammer to bang the other end of the open spanner to help loosen it. I really should have used a long pipe as extension which could have given me better leverage. This banging seems to have left an impact on the bottom bracket spindle or the ball bearings inside or atleast the races that hold the balls in place. It's a 17 year old hercules bike which was available here in India back then but is now obsolete. It has the old left side lock type bottom bracket fastener unlike the present day square taper BB. I have ordered the crank puller tool online and will be taking apart the BB to assess it better. Lastly I meant the bottom bracket spindle or axle shaft that connects the two pedal cranks as crank unit. I will share the link of Picasa where I will be uploading pics of the bike.
Thanks everyone.

dabac

Are you talking about a cup & cone BB, with its lockring?
As opposed to the splined ring of a modern cartridge style bb.
Or a cottered crank?

If it’s a cottered crank, you don’t need a crank puller. But a cotter press might be useful.

Chief

If this bike has as many miles as I suspect a 17 year old bike may have, then your bottom bracket was already worn out. And you just happened to notice the loose movement after pedal replacement.

Raghavcd100

Yes, its a cup and cone BB with a lockring.

Raghavcd100

Yes, possible. Im not sure whether you can see the pics that i tried uploading. It is taken from a recent tire swap that was done a year ago, its just to give you all an idea of the bike im talking bout.

BlazingPedals

That describes a standard JIS square-taper bottom bracket. It's rather involved getting everything off -- pull the crank arms off, use lockring tool on the left side, use big wrench on the fixed (right) side. If the cranks were loose on the spindles, they'll have to be replaced, too. Otherwise, Shimano probably makes a sealed unit to replace the old one.

I've found you can put an enormous amount of pressure on a wrench if you position it so that you can squeeze the wrench and the crank arm together to loosen the bolt. You probably didn't even need an extension for the wrench if you'd done it right, much less a hammer.

Raghavcd100

Looks like you know exactly what I went through. Yes I should have set the wrench to a position and squeezed it out by using my whole self to give it the needed torque. I'll be picking up the whole bottom bracket set complete with spindle, to replace as it's nearly 18 years and has atleast a lac kilometres on it.