How (or should I?) do I rebuild reflector bow pedals?

[JustinHorne]

Hi all,

Brand new to the forum, but I've been putting the search feature to great use. I'm in the process of restoring/rebuilding my highly original 71 Suburban. It's in really excellent shape to begin with, just dirty. I've now reached the pedals, which this forum tells me are "Reflector Bow Pedals."

Here is a photo of mine:

https://imgur.com/a/oyklzOT

I'm guessing these aren't rebuildable? I don't see an easy way to get the cap off. With that in mind, what's the right course of action? They sound very very dry inside and spin very freely. They're also quite dirty. I can see the bearings on the inside near the nut end, but not the outer side near the cap. Should I give them a through degreasing and then put oil on the side I have access to, or?

Thanks!

 

[kostnerave]

Hi, This type of bow pedal isn't rebuildable.....easily. I did rebuild a pair of these awhile ago, but I doubt if I'd do it again. You'll need to flatten the peened tabs where they stick out at the back plate on the axle side of the pedal. This will enable you to carefully pry off the back plate giving you access to the bearings and pedal axle. Carefully spread the strip that wraps around the pedal. Under the "cap" side of the pedal, you'll find a nut, lock washer and a small bearing cone. Once you remove these, the axle can be removed from the chrome cover shaft. Clean, polish and lube everything and reassemble the pedal. Once the back plate is on, repeen the tabs. Now, what I would do, is clean and polish them the best I could, leaving them together then prop them up "cap" side down and soak them with a good Teflon based lube, like Tri-Flow.

 

[JustinHorne]

Hi, This type of bow pedal isn't rebuildable.....easily. I did rebuild a pair of these awhile ago, but I doubt if I'd do it again. You'll need to flatten the peened tabs where they stick out at the back plate on the axle side of the pedal. This will enable you to carefully pry off the back plate giving you access to the bearings and pedal axle. Carefully spread the strip that wraps around the pedal. Under the "cap" side of the pedal, you'll find a nut, lock washer and a small bearing cone. Once you remove these, the axle can be removed from the chrome cover shaft. Clean, polish and lube everything and reassemble the pedal. Once the back plate is on, repeen the tabs. Now, what I would do, is clean and polish them the best I could, leaving them together then prop them up "cap" side down and soak them with a good Teflon based lube, like Tri-Flow.

Awesome, thanks for spelling out both options. Yeah, that's what I feared, and I agree that option B sounds better. If I do that, do I have access to put a thin lube into both ends? Would I be crazy to pop them into my ultrasonic cleaner and let it go wild? I'm fine with that as long as I can get some oil back into the bearings.

And full disclosure, this is my 'mail getter' and neighborhood cruiser, so I don't need the pedals to handle thousands of Ks per year by any means. But of course, I want to do it as right as I can.

 

[kostnerave]

Avoid the ultrasonic, it will etch the finish on the shiny parts, remove too much grease and dull the reflectors. Use some Simple Green and warm water to clean the grease off, then Mother's Mag Polish and a soft rag on all of the metal surfaces ( lots of q-tips!), then Maguires Vinyl and Rubber Preserver on the rubber treads. The Mother's will even polish those amber reflectors! When the pedals are nice and dry, saturate them with Tri-Flo. Use enough so that it will kroil down to the outer bearings.

 

[juvela]

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Hello Justin and welcome to the forum!

It's a friendly spot whose members have a staggering amount of cycle savvy.

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Another technique employed by some enthusiasts is to drill a small hole in the endcap and use this to pump grease into the pedal with a grease gun.

If one uses something light coloured such as lithium grease it can be pumped until the material coming out around the pedal axle is clean and then you know you are done.

Before applying any dressing to the treads first clean the rubber with a purpose made cleaner. These are available at auto supply stores. The dressing have had the best experience with is called 303 Protectant. It is the only dressing of its type which I know of to be amine free.

The barrel is zinc plated so you are not going to be able to get it to shine the way the chrome plated surround plate shines. You can clean and polish a bit to make it as presentable as possible.

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Owned a Suburban from this time also; cannot now recall the exact year. My example was the burgundy colour.

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[JustinHorne]

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Awesome, thanks for all the tips, I'll look into that. I'll probably pass on drilling the caps; I've got an aversion to anything that's 'permanent,' if that makes sense. That technique is sort of similar to how I grease my Speedplays though; open the cap, and grease it until it comes out clean.

And yeah, I love this bike! It's super original and has a really neat history (To me; it came from Kissler's Cyclery in Portland).

Even in its pre-restored state, it's very clean. It's a 'ten-footer' though; it needed a very deep clean, grease everywhere, paint correction, and pretty much everything else. I'm keeping it, so the time investment is moot to me.

https://imgur.com/a/fF3uCzu