Going against every male inclination I was actually reading the instructions on the back of a Permatex (Loctite) Threadlocker package and noted the Red, High Strength, said it had to be heated to 500 degrees for it to release.
Blue, Medium Strength, stated the bond could be broken with hand tools.
Red Loctite has been recomended for tapered crank nuts, is it really that hard to release with the red? I have used the blue and have not had any problem getting the nuts to release.
Any sage advice on the use of Red Loctite, or any other colors for that matter, would be greatly appreciated.
From the annals of “the only stupid question is the one you didn’t ask”…
Hi Steve,
I use blue Loctite on crank nuts and they stay put like I want 'em to but at the same time, when it comes to the inevitable, ‘what if I switch cranks to…’ thought, the nuts come loose with a regular socket wrench no problems.
Then again, my pal Andrea found that her Yuni 29’er from Uni.com had red locktite on the cranks nuts and also she had no problem releasing these either.
So there you go, just to shed a little more confusion on to you choice of colours!
Erin, who doubted if that helped at all, but just had to share anyways!
Steve: The link below goes to a thread, and the John Childs post within the thread has links to a couple other threads that should give you more data points than you need on this one…
The bottom line I was looking for but didn’t find in the thread was something I remember seeing JC write to the effect of (and I paraphrase blindly here from the actual gospel according to St. John) “Yeah, it SAYS it’s permanent, but that’s not true…it’s just the least temporary of the colors.”
Loctite calls the red stuff “permanent” but you can still break the bond at room temperature with standard hand tools.
However, the difficulty in breaking the red Loctite bond does depend on the size of the bolt, the pitch and quality of the threads, and how clean the parts were when you apply the Loctite. If you put red Loctite on a small diameter bolt (say a bolt under 5 mm) you will have a much more difficult time breaking the bond than on larger diameter bolts. The pitch and quality of the threads also makes a difference. If the parts have a fine thread and are machined to fit very snugly with no gap between the male and female parts then the Loctite will get a much stronger bond and will be MUCH harder to break. With coarse threads the Loctite doesn’t get as good of a bond and it will be easier to break the bond with regular hand tools.
I use the “Red” high strength threadlocker for larger bolts and the “Blue” medium strength threadlocker for smaller bolts. For example, I’ll use blue Loctite on the traction pins on my pedals and I’ll use red Loctite on the retaining nut for my square taper cranks. I have never had any difficulty getting the crank retaining nut loose after it has been Loctited with the red stuff. The crank retaining nut is a coarse thread.
john_childs <john_childs.q9kin@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
>
> Loctite calls the red stuff “permanent” but you can still break the bond
> at room temperature with standard hand tools.
I’ve not come accross this loctite stuff before… can I use it to stop
my pedals coming off when I’m practicing my backwards riding?
> First try greasing then tightening the pedal with a pedal wrench. I
> rarely have troubles with pedals coming loose.
I have to say I was dubious, but I got hold of a tin of grease and it
worked a treat… I’ve been doing laps backwards round the park and for
the first time my pedals didn’t unscrew within about 20 meters.