cyrano138

I've never messed with pedals before so I don't know where to start. I found some videos but only for clip-in pedals and mountain bike pedals that don't have this plastic cover on them. How does that come off? Then what happens? I'm asking because on feels sluggish (smooth but doesn't turn freely) and the other has play in it. If I hold the part that screws into the crank, the main part (not the outer cage that screws to the main part) wiggles.

Thanks for any help. I know it's a basic question probably, but I'm having trouble getting youtube to come up with anything helpful.

Trevtassie

Unscrew the cage, use a pointy something to work off the plastic cap. That'll expose the locknut and the cone. If you are lucky the cone will have spanner flats on it and you can jamb a screwdriver down the side of it when you are tightening up the locknut.

macstuff 

Unscrew the footrest from the body and take it off.
The plastic cap will have little recess on the edge somewhere, Im pretty sure that plastic cap just snaps into place. You should be able to put a dinky screw driver or what ever in that little recess and pry it out.
But...
Maybe it unscrews. It will be easier to look at with the foot rest off.
Under the cap you will find a top lock nut holding down the cone nut.
You will hold the axle still with another wrench on the threaded axle end or in a vice but it is better to disassemble over a catch pan of some sort because the bearings are most likely loose inside and some will fall out when disassembling and pulling out the axle.

Clean everything, inspect for damage, re-assemble with your chosen grease.
you pack grease in the cup on each end and sink the bearings into the grease which will hold them still for re-assembly.
Grease the cones and re=assemble.
Note:
When tightening the lock nut, sometimes it will squeeze the cone nut down a little tighter and mess up the adjustment you thought was good. You need to apply a little reverse pre-load to the cone nut (not so tight next time by 1/4 thread) so when the lock nut tightens, it brings the setting into place rather than pushing it away.

cyrano138

It's hard to get a good photo. Everything in both ends looks perfectly round.

Here's a picture after cleaning the grease out:

There doesn't seem to be anything that any too could grab onto. Are some pedals just not serviceable?

SpedFast

Get in there with an itty bitty screw driver and work the grease out. I'm betting you'll discover that it's not round after all. It's going to be a tight fit for a socket, hope it's maybe an Allen. My luck would be socket and need a super thin wall.

Trevtassie

There should be a 10mm locknut under that grease.
The cone being round means you'll need hammer a screwdriver down the side to wedge it in place while you do up the locknut. Brutal but effective.

billnuke1 

Maybe, “hammer” is a bit harsh…I’ve never had to “hammer”, maybe insert with the appropriate amount of authority…sometimes all you need to do is to start with a regular size flat tip screwdriver rather than a small one..

cyrano138

Just can't see anything like a lock nut. Sorry, I'm sure it's frustrating to keep explaining. Where am I jamming the screwdriver?

billnuke1 

Hmmmm…looks like a bearing! I wish I had it in my hand…usually there’s a washer…does the round flat piece pick up with a little screwdriver, needle nose pliers? I’ve never seen a bearing at one end and ball bearings at the other…there are ball bearings at the other end, right?

cyrano138

I can't budge the round bits at all, not in the way of prying them up, anyway. Here's a pic of the other side:

billnuke1 

Well. Usually by now, I’m rummaging around in my pedal pile looking for replacements…hold on! Just looked these up…maybe a Polymer Bearing…yup…a plastic bearing…you may have to do some destructive exploration on those puppies! Keep us informed!

cyrano138

I like your style, haha. Yeah I'm going to break out the grinder tomorrow and see what's in these.

Trevtassie

Now it's clean, yep, in terms of rebuild you are SOL, they are bushing pedals, plastic sleeve and the end of the shaft riveted to hold it together.

What you can do is re grease them. That'll fix the stiff one, but it won't tighten the loose one, that's worn, but it might get you some more life.
Grab some car brake cleaner in a spray can and fill the outer end of the pedal, holding it vertical, spin the pedal from the thread end and let the brake cleaner flush any crap out of the bushing. Do it a few times. Get a can of lithium spray grease and spray a bit in the outer end and again spin it so the grease goes down the axle. Alternatively you can mix some brake cleaner and normal grease to a runny liquid and spin that in. Put the pedal somewhere warm and allow the brake cleaner to evaporate. Then pack the outer end with grease, as well as the cap and slowly push it back in, that'll force more grease down the axle. If you can push and spin the axle, even better.

Ultimately they are close to the cheapest pedals you can get and are doomed to die sooner or later.

billnuke1 

I’ve been known to fill the ends of non- rebuildable pedals with grease, push as much down into the pedals as I can with my fingers, then grab a rag and my air hose…point the nozzle of my air hose at the most obvious void that grease could possibly get into…wrap the rag around the nozzle and blow as much grease into that void as possible! Pushing the grease with my fingers work well for the open end of the pedal, but, you really need to get the grease to the other end! So push as much grease as you can into the open end…

cyrano138

These were freebies so no great loss. I'd rather replace these with something serviceable. I think mks makes decent ones. I'll post some pics when I cut these open in case anyone's curious.

GamblerGORD53

It could be there's a sealed bearing on the open side and just a sleeve bushing on the crank side. I can't see flats on what should be the 10 mm nut. So if it's like I said, then there's no adjustment involved. Just snug up the nut.
My Vsixty pedals were like this and lasted pretty well.

IF otherwise with loose bearing adjustment, make sure there is play and they can spin 6 or 8 revs.

Crankycrank

Have you checked if the outside end has an allen or torx head on it? It kinda, sorta looks like there may be something like that under the grease.