MTB Maintenence: How to overhaul mountain bike pedals

Following my MTB Maintenance series of Instructables, this installment is an in depth guide on how to strip, grease and rebuild the pedals on your mountain bike. The pedals in question in this Instructable are Crank Brothers 5050x with cone style bearings. This this Instructable only shows how to overhaul the pedals with the more common type of bearing, the cup and cone style, so if you have sealed cartridge bearings look elsewhere!, so lets get started!

Step 1: What you need.

As pedal overhauling is as complicated as hub overhauling, you need a selection of tools to get the job done, as follows:

A pedal
Paintbrush with stiff bristles
15mm spanner
12mm and 9/16 sockets
Socket attachment extender
Ratchet
Knife
Grease
4 containers
A cloth

After you have gathered these items, we can continue...

Comments

[Aron313]

I just got a banshee scream and the pedals make a little click sound. Im not worried about it nor do i want to spend $80 to get new pedals but i just wanted to see if you knew anything about it.

[Aron313]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HchmcZvgoBY&list=UUrTQ6ERhmiS_tgk0rRKKIDA&index=3&feature=plcp

Check out this video of mountian biking.

[buenasolas]

Great instructable. My crank bros pedals are new, but this will come in handy when it's time to rebuild them. Thanks!

[Flash Gordon]

I'm doing this with some old odyssey pedals, and i used simple green which worked well.

[sharlston]

Great Ible, Idea: Chain Cleaning And Lubricating

[metalex17]

Hi, some time ago I have cleaned my old odyssey pedals and I use WD40 oil to clean the bearings and It´s work so good, i put the bearings, cone, and another little metallic stuff into a plastic cup, I pour a trickle of oil (WD40 of course) and I let this do her work, later i put the grease like your way, assembly and ready, I comment the WD40 because the cone and the bearings some times have rust and the cloth don´t remove it.

(excluse the English, Im from Mex)

[millersxtremedepot]

wd40 is great for cleaning and removing rust as you say, but it is not a good lubricant for reassembly, make sure you use plenty of grease after wiping parts dry after cleaning. Bedbugg is correct, for sure!

[bedbugg2]

Yeah, WD40 is really good for getting rid of all the old grease and the rust, white spirit works quite good as well, you have just got to make sure that the bearings and cones are completely free of WD40 before you regrease it and put it all back together.

[sharlston]

if you can instead if grease use motor oil or 3 in 1 oil and do it about once a month
although you have to do it more often the oedals turn more freely

[sharlston]

is this crucial?

[bedbugg2]

Well, if your pedals have play in them, or it is time that they needed a service, then yes.

[sharlston]

it turns out my pedals dosent have bearings in them do they all?

[bedbugg2]

They all usually have bearings in, if they don't, then its worth replacing them as they cannot be overhauled.

[sharlston]

well its a tapered cone where the point is facing towards yourself and theres around 5 slits init

[bedbugg2]

Are you sure there aren't any bearings in there? take a pic of the pedal and send it to me if you can.

[sharlston]

it turns out my diamond back ones have bearings ill take a another look

[sharlston]

ok ill take a look on some other diamondback bmx pedals aswell cs i think there the same

 i might be able to get a picture tommorw