XTR Pedals - keep on failing

[Excite_Bike]

My right side xtr has a clunk in it when i apply pressure. Stripped it down but could not find anything wrong. Should i expect the worst to happen. Going to take my 520's off another bike and use those for a while.

[kosmonooit]

Definitely a design problem on those XTR pedals, mine bombed at an event,

 

Can't believe its still happening!

[JXV]

You guys making me nervous...[emoji15]

I ride XTR Trail pedals. A year now with no issues and they've endured a few big pedal strikes so hoping I got good ones .

 

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[JannievanZyl]

OP did the shaft actually break or did the securing bolt at the end of the shaft come loose, allowing the pedal to disassemble itself?

If a loose bolt it can be fixed.

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Interestingly, neither.

I could pull the shaft out of the body and the nuts on the end are still in place and still tight. See pic.

Suspect it's wear increasing tolerance that caused the ball bearings to drop out and eventually they all fell out of the groove and the whole thing collapsed.

I Googled a bit and these axles tend to break at the thread on the small end but that did not happen to mine.

[JannievanZyl]

This is what it should look like.

[JXV]

XTR-3.jpg

Interestingly, neither.

 

I could pull the shaft out of the body and the nuts on the end are still in place and still tight. See pic.

 

Suspect it's wear increasing tolerance that caused the ball bearings to drop out and eventually they all fell out of the groove and the whole thing collapsed.

 

I Googled a bit and these axles tend to break at the thread on the small end but that did not happen to mine.

That shaft showing signs of some extreme wear/corrosion at the dust seal and I'm guessing this allowed water in, eventually causing bearing collapse.

 

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[JannievanZyl]

That shaft showing signs of some extreme wear/corrosion at the dust seal and I'm guessing this allowed water in, eventually causing bearing collapse.

 

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Yup,

 

Read on some other forums that the seals sometimes blow out.

[milky4130]

Riding through River crossings, riding in the rain, high pressure hoses plus you don't service them at all let alone regularly what did you expect? Then blames the pedal model?

[jimmycool]

Riding through River crossings, riding in the rain, high pressure hoses plus you don't service them at all let alone regularly what did you expect? Then blames the pedal model?

But you can give the same treatment to the xt version and they hold up just fine.

[Patchelicious]

Is this a subtle Xmas gift hint?

[milky4130]

But you can give the same treatment to the xt version and they hold up just fine.

is the Xt made up the same way as the XTR i.e. The internals? Xtr has loose ball bearings not sure if Xt is the same or possibly sealed bearings which could be the difference?

[awesme]

Never heard of this with my XT pedals.

 

G

 

This is my second set of XTR pedals that broke like this. Pretty much the end of your ride when this happens. Not very confidence inspiring.

 

Anyone else seeing this on these pedals and can it be repaired?

 

XTR-1.jpg

XTR-2.jpg

[awesme]

Ps, your other option is egg beaters, be ready to redo bearings at min once a year, got a friends that's on his 3rd set of bearings for the year.

 

We ride together, I'm still running same pedals as fitted 2013

 

G

[PhilipV]

I'm going to guess that there was some high pressure hose action involved, most likely at a stage race.

Xtr pedals need a regular service and spruce up. That's the cost of being in the cutting edge of performance.

XT are way more robust, but even they need a service every now and then.

[JXV]

is the Xt made up the same way as the XTR i.e. The internals? Xtr has loose ball bearings not sure if Xt is the same or possibly sealed bearings which could be the difference?

Both XT and XTR have cup and cone bearings using same size 3/32" balls. The XTR uses 11 balls per set while XT uses 12 balls per set so presumably XTR has a thinner shaft for weight saving and this is likely the key difference in terms of durability

 

The method of attaching pedal to the shaft assembly using a hollow lock bolt is common to both but in XT the lock bolt also includes the inner bearing cup whereas XTR has a separate sleeve inside the lockbolt for this. Download the ev diagrams from si.shimano.com if you're curious.

 

In either case, due to the lock bolts, it is hard to see how the pedal body can separate from the shaft/bearing assembly unless either the shaft breaks or the bearing locknut at the end of the shaft comes loose.

 

As with many Shimano products the seals are very light for low friction and need care. Once water gets in the pedal is toast unless you regularly strip and clean it. Pedals often get dunked in mud and water and only a single thin seal separates delicate steel parts from contamination. Using hosepipe or pressure sprayer to clean them is going to shorten the life.

 

Suggest to regularly check and regrease your pedals. The lockbolt allows you to remove the pedal body without affecting bearing preload so regreasing is easy if the bearings are in order and dont need adjustment. ....any freeplay however.....increases wear on the seals so it means attention required otherwise they quickly go south.

 

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[kosmonooit]

Well I never use (or have used) a high pressure cleaner on my bike nor did my XTR pedals get any worse treatment that other XT's I have used (or even the cheap entry level ones) which have never failed like this.

 

And this failure has been going on for years with XTR pedals so whatever the details, surely its a design flaw and there should have been a recall or some redress from Shimano.