Difficulty whilst tightening pedal into crank

[timmitchell]

Swaped pedals tonight and the drive side crank pedal hasn't gone in smooth. It is OK till about the last two turns. Can you reface the thread or is it a sign from the crankset god?

Next question will be how?

Cheers

[Brucey]

you can run a tap through the crank threads, and this may well improve matters. However what it won't do is replace missing metal, so if the threads are damaged then they may not be at full strength after such an operation.

BTW it is normal for the unused crank arm threads to get dirty; if new pedals have a longer threaded portion than the old ones, then the last turn or two will be into a dirty thread and you may get some binding. BTW you can't really overgrease pedal threads when installing pedals....

cheers

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
What ee said^.
Pedal threads do not normally exceed the thread length in crank arm.
Like said dirt and corrosion if grease was not present on threads.
Degrease, and get a bit of old towel say six inches long at least, that will just be forced through the hole, with nice thick fibres, shove it in the crank arm, turning it so it threads right through.
With equal length either side grab both ends and swing the crank arm around so the towel material rubs against the threads.
Examine the towel material for dirt.
Look closely at the pedal threads, some times there is a burr from dropping pedal even a mark that was there from the maker.
A triangular swiss file worked carefully around thread if signs of damage will fix damage.
Plenty of grease and if some resistance if felt after cleaning threads, tighten a quarter of a turn and back out a half a turn, repeat till home.
Remove pedal clean threads both parts, regrease and assemble again.

If using a tap you Must use Cutting fluid otherwise the thread will tear and oversize.

[David9694]

You might also try running the pedal in from the inside of the crank and see how that goes.

If your threads don’t improve after the treatments described here then yes probably it’s the crankset Gods - there is a repair option, but your cranks would need to be fairly special for this to be economic.

[timmitchell]

Sorted it this morning.

Baby wiped the thread. Screwed in the pedal on the reverse side. Grease and presto.

Thanks for the tips