I opened up my pedals following this little tutorial, and what did i find? The bigger bearing towards the axle thread was almost dry! This could be heard and also „felt“ beforehand, when turning the pedals quickly. I hate this... So i decided to check up the „interiors“. I guess It will always be true what has been said about Shimano pedals: Technically they are brilliant, but by default the manufacturer SAVES ON GREASE! - As a matter of fact, i re-greased ALL of my shimano pedal combos (at least 4 of them over time). Re-adjusting the pedals afterwards is very tricky, but is kind of a challenge, too, to find the „sweet spot“ of no play but smooth rolling. And if you have managed and finished in the end, you are happy! And with new extra grease the pedals are feeling way better for a long time.
Get some small external circlip pliers (I paid 7.49 GBP for a set of four) and you can do the job properly. The 9 bearings deep inside the body look like a nightmare, but they're easy. Drop 9 dry balls into a clean dry pedal body and the little island Shimano provided in the middle of the raceway will distribute them into a ring. You may need to tease the last one into place with a pointer. Keep the pedal body with the open end upright until it's time to lower the greased axle assembly into it. Ensure there is a really good dollop of grease on the end of the axle for those nine bearings.
The needle bearing is easy to pull out with a spoke. The job should really be done properly, to get all the old grease out. If and when water gets in, you must do a total stripdown (assuming it hasn't already rusted out the inboard bearing).
From the sales info, it appears to be three bearings per pedal. It looks like you only cleaned one of the bearings. How do you remove and clean the other two?
I opened up my pedals following this little tutorial, and what did i find? The bigger bearing towards the axle thread was almost dry! This could be heard and also „felt“ beforehand, when turning the pedals quickly. I hate this... So i decided to check up the „interiors“. I guess It will always be true what has been said about Shimano pedals: Technically they are brilliant, but by default the manufacturer SAVES ON GREASE! - As a matter of fact, i re-greased ALL of my shimano pedal combos (at least 4 of them over time). Re-adjusting the pedals afterwards is very tricky, but is kind of a challenge, too, to find the „sweet spot“ of no play but smooth rolling. And if you have managed and finished in the end, you are happy! And with new extra grease the pedals are feeling way better for a long time.
Good tips, thanks!
Get some small external circlip pliers (I paid 7.49 GBP for a set of four) and you can do the job properly.
The 9 bearings deep inside the body look like a nightmare, but they're easy. Drop 9 dry balls into a clean dry pedal body and the little island Shimano provided in the middle of the raceway will distribute them into a ring. You may need to tease the last one into place with a pointer. Keep the pedal body with the open end upright until it's time to lower the greased axle assembly into it. Ensure there is a really good dollop of grease on the end of the axle for those nine bearings.
great tips, thanks!
This is what I came here for. Thanks very much for clearing this up
The needle bearing is easy to pull out with a spoke. The job should really be done properly, to get all the old grease out. If and when water gets in, you must do a total stripdown (assuming it hasn't already rusted out the inboard bearing).
inside there's 9 ball bearings in there, also a roller type fix bearings and one plastic bushing guide.
Gread vid as always, Do you find the roller bearing inside the body sometimes sticks? I had to send mine back to shimano after mine lunched itself.
Hi mate! You mean the one at the very end of the body that you don't really have access to? Mine seems OK.
From the sales info, it appears to be three bearings per pedal. It looks like you only cleaned one of the bearings. How do you remove and clean the other two?
You could use tweezers? Why didn’t you? I did enjoy the vid,thank you.
True, good point. Probably couldn't find them...!
So. you take the bearings out of the degreaser then reinstall.
Doesn't that degrade the new grease?
I would always add new grease after degreasing.
How do you remove the seal in fron of the balls ?