i have heard of a few forum users having problems with the helicoil inserts that the pedals screw into on the crank. It seems that now it is my turn to have this problem. i got my uni in march?april? I have taken the pedals off 3 or 4 times, i just went to take them off so that i could take the cranks off w/ the tool i have, but that one didn’t want to come off. it spins 1/4 of a turn in the crank, but will not budge in the helicoil. I ended up tightening it as tight as i could get it w/o worrying about stripping.
what happened to the other cranks that had this problem?
I am emailing kris soon.
I think that the insert is turning in the alum arm until it hits the outer lock ring. At this point the pedal should unscrew as normal. When you reinsert the pedal, the insert turns again until it is tight against the inner lock ring, allowing the pedal to tighten as normal. If you changed pedals hundreds of times, this movement may perhaps wear a bit of the alum threads that the insert screws in, but I doubt it. I wouldn’t worry about it. Especially if I didn’t change the pedals often. I would torque the pedal in pretty good though, as you are also tightening the large outer diameter of the thread insert. If the thread insert gets loose and is ridden that way, it may wear and strip in a manner similar to a loose pedal.
