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Saw a shop in Portland handle a stripped pedal thread with a helicoil kit

Was visiting a friend's shop out there last spring. They had a customer bring in a carbon frame with a totally wrecked left pedal thread. The crank arm was aluminum, the frame was fine, but the threads were gone. Instead of writing off the crank, the head mechanic pulled out a Time-Sert kit. Drilled it out, tapped for the insert, used the special installation tool. Whole job took maybe 45 minutes. Customer paid for the repair, not a new crank. I'd always just replaced the arm before. Now I keep a kit on my truck. Anyone else switched to thread inserts for this kind of damage?
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3 Comments
cameron_chen
Why didn't I know this sooner?
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charlesanderson
charlesanderson3mo agoProlific Poster
Man, I felt the same way. I threw out a perfectly good crank last year over stripped threads. Could have fixed it for twenty bucks in parts instead of buying a whole new one. Live and learn, I guess.
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torres.leo
torres.leo28d ago
Live and learn, I guess" - I get that, but I actually see it the other way. I've tried the helicoil route a couple times and had mixed results. One held great, the other started backing out after a few rides, which was a pain to deal with on the trail. Maybe it's user error on my part, but I'd rather just swap the crank arm for peace of mind. To me, threads are one of those things where a cheap fix can turn into a bigger headache later, especially if you're putting power down.
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