OTish: Decent 15mm Spanner

From the POV of value for money, I think Halfords Pro range is good:

Assuming the pedal you want to remove is scrap, take it to bits so only the spindle is left, then hold the spindle in the vice. You can then use a soft- face hammer on the crank to shock it free, and/or use a piece of pipe to get more leverage.

And you save the price of the spanner. ;-)

Chris

Aluminium expands more than steel. Steel shaft in an aluminium housing - use heat Aluminium shaft in a steel housing- stick it in the freezer.

Gentle temperature cycling may help produce enough of a gap to let penetrating fluid in.

Example Ebay listing of what you may want

OR

and/or

Shock it off by hitting the spanner with a lump hammer - probably more suited to the cheap pedal spanners with the wide/flat shafts

Plus gas and soak it first , aluminum oxides seizing in that's why your struggling .

You can use heat but its likely to damage any plastics

Get a dedicated pedal spanner - they work. Longer than a normal spanner, and the head although thinner has more metal backing it than a normal spanner so it won't break. (It has to be thinner to fit any pedal with flare on the end, eg Shimano). They take a fair amount of abuse IME - I've broken cheap normal spanners, but the pedal spanner is still entirely whole.

I'd probably get a Park PW5 - but I do have enough bikes and have removed and replaced enough pedals to make it worthwhile.

You must have searched the globe to find spanners that feeble. Even a cheap set from Lidl or Aldi won't break using your hands. But the easiest good quality single ones to buy would be Halfords Pro combination (ring one end, open end the other, both the same size)

I've broken a few of the set I bought for bugger all money 20-odd years ago at the open end - rings are still fine though. They were sufficiently cheap that despite the failures I think it's still been good value.

But for shifting a stuck pedal I'd be abusing a normal spanner - putting a longer lever on it, hitting it with a hammer, etc. I'm not that nasty to my nice ones, and I'd expect many to not cope. Be interesting to see how much abuse a snap-on could take :-)

This was one:

Indeed. That's what intrigued me about the spanner shown in the video.

the nice thing about the snap on is that it would be replaced free (if it broke)

as to the op, you need some heat, and a decent spanner or make your own, a piece of T shaped bar with a 15mm cut out on one side would be a good start.

Tempting, but would it take an extension tube as in the video? They don't look that chunky. Ido have 5 or 6 Halfords Pro spanners - but not flippin 15mm.

Yes, that's what I've done, but I don't have a piece of tube big enough to go over the crank.

Indeed! But now I'm going to need another 15mm having mangled all the others.

Thanks - I'll try heating/penetrating fluid.

That's more like it. Even the Park ones look like cheap stamped steel, and a few reviews report bending.

Think I'll go with the one above. It's already been subjected to quite a bit of force.

Thanks, I'll give that go, with heat. The bike is about 30 years old and I've no reason to believe these aren't the original pedals.

it's OK - the pedal is stripped down to the steel spindle.

While I've not done this on a bike, on other seized bolts I've never damaged a spanner. By the time I've tried all my weight on the end of a

Yes, I've been quite surprised. When I used to work on cars bouncing about on a 3' scaffold pole wasn't unusual, especially with hub and flywheel nuts/bolts. Still got that socket set - a basic Draper. And I don't remember breaking a spanner. 15mm is quite a small size, considering the pressure I've been applying, though.

warm it up, in the oven will do if you have no blowtorch

Ah - right. More normal with a decent open ender is that it rounds off the nut, rather than break. I take it you can't use a socket? Even a slim one?

Galvanic corrosion. Ideally leave the crank/pedal interface soaking in penetrating oil for a couple of days. If you only have penetrating oil spray to hand, something like 4 parts paraffin or diesel to 1 part lube oil will do.

Aluminium expands about twice as much as steel, so heat is good. Also, if you are using a gas torch on the outside the crank will initially get hotter than the spindle. Impact sometimes helps to shift things.

I'd expect an ordinary spanner to be good enough, unless you really do a lot of bike maintenance. But you will probably need a decent length of cheater.

Pedals normally only have two flats, not six. And there's the minor matter of a 2-3" spindle sticking out too :-)

I've never had pedal axles round - they're probably made of decent steel, because they form the bearing surface for the main bearing, and they need to be quite strong to withstand people jumping on them - breaking an axle gets very painful.

Yeah, pedal axles are quite hard, usually. If anything breaks it'll be the hole in the crank.

With you now, Not had a bike for ages and the design of such things has changed since I had. ;-) A decent stud extractor?