So...I moved back to boston for school and since i didn't bring a bike with me i was looking for anything that i could find to fill the void. And I did. On September 1st all of the college kids move back to the neighborhoods and the new leases all start. So the night before, everyone dumps all of the old [censored] that they don't want on the corner and the city cleans it up. So i scored the Stairmaster version of the LeMond Revmaster Spinner bike. It is a little rusty but it works well. So i decided that i would put some clipless pedals on it and i ordered some shimano look-style pedals and some clips and got some old shoes from home. The problem is that the previous owner of the Revmaster CROSS-THREADED the left pedal on the crank, AND stripped the hex nut that connects the arm to the drive(or whatever it's called). I have tried everything to get it off, i even talked to one of my professors who suggested that i bring the arm into the metal shop and try to drill out the old bolt and do some other crazy stuff...I just wanted to know if anyone out there has had to deal with any cross-threading problems and if so how they were resolved...any advice would be much appreciated.
The problem is that the previous owner of the Revmaster CROSS-THREADED the left pedal on the crank, AND stripped the hex nut that connects the arm to the drive(or whatever it's called).
I don't understand what you mean by cross-threading, but I assume your problem is that you can't get the pedal unstuck. There's usually two flat surfaces on the pedal axle where you can fit a wrench. That usually does the trick if the hex has given up. There are special pedal wrenches available, but a normal one (15 or 16 mm) of decent quality should work too. Adjustable wrenches are usually too thick to fit, and might flex too much to work anyhow.
I'd use drilling out as a last resort, the steel is quite hard, and there's considerable risk of damaging the threads. One thing you can try is to remove the pedal platform from the axle, then clamp the pedal axle in a vise and turn the crank arm.
cross-threaded means that the pedal wasn't threaded straight into the crankarm; it was done at an angle and tore up the threads.
Sekai- are you saying that the pedal is cross-threaded AND the nut holding the crankarm onto your spindle (bottom bracket) is stripped out? If that's the case, then you have two issues here. Craftsman makes a socket that will allow you to remove nuts that are rounded over or stripped (if I'm understanding you right). You might be able to deal with the pedal flats being stripped by filing or grinding new flats onto the pedal spindle and then wrenching it off.
Either way, drilling is an option because the pedal threads in the crankarm are likely going to have to be retapped once you get everything out.
