Squeaky double bass drum pedal

supermac

Senior Member
My pedal has started to squeak like a rusty old barn door.

What is the best way to oil/lubricate it without covering the whole pedal with gunge and gunk?

Thanks...
 
WD40, comes in a can with a nozzle for precision work.
You can also just spray oil on it and remove any excessive oil when you're done.
 
WD40, comes in a can with a nozzle for precision work.
You can also just spray oil on it and remove any excessive oil when you're done.

Actually WD is not a lubricant despite what many think. firstly what pedal is it? Where is the squeak coming from on the pedal. Something as simple as a little bit of silicone spray may do the trick unless it's the bearings in the pedal going out.
 
unless it's the bearings in the pedal going out.

This is what happened to my DW 4000 pedal JUST a few days past a year of owner ship. Of course, DW wouldn't do a thing about and didn't have what was needed for a fix since they don't make the peice of junk anymore.
 
i have gibraltar double pedal and it squeaked because the spacing inside one of the joints/brackets was wrong.. i simple piece of cardboard and little geese fixed it :)
 
You may want to take the pedal apart and clean everything that moves. I took mine apart sometime last year after a couple years of ownership and cleaned everything up, removed gunk from everything. Put it back together and felt little difference in feel. I took it apart again, and this time took my bearings and put them in a small plastic container with a lid on it. inside I put a solution called De-Solv-It, or something like that. I just swished the bearings around in the solution for about a minute. I poured the solution out, which was darker than when I had put it in due to it cleaning out the dirt in the bearings. This worked better than anything else i've ever tried, but if you swish the bearings around in a little WD40 that will also work. Finally I put my pedal back together and it felt noticeably different, but was still lacking something that i knew could be improved on. I finally realized the hinge at the bottom of the footplate. Took that apart and that was the dirtiest part of the pedal. Made a massive difference when I put it back together.

Anyway, the main morals of the story are clean gunk out, clean your bearings well, and don't forget about the hinge at the bottom of the footplate.
 
Do not use WD40. Take the pedal completely apart, and lube all the moving parts with bike chain oil. This stuff works great, isn't messy and smells delicious. If you can't find any, mineral oil has worked for me.

If you're pedal is rusty at all, you're out of luck.
 
You may want to take the pedal apart and clean everything that moves. I took mine apart sometime last year after a couple years of ownership and cleaned everything up, removed gunk from everything. Put it back together and felt little difference in feel. I took it apart again, and this time took my bearings and put them in a small plastic container with a lid on it. inside I put a solution called De-Solv-It, or something like that. I just swished the bearings around in the solution for about a minute. I poured the solution out, which was darker than when I had put it in due to it cleaning out the dirt in the bearings. This worked better than anything else i've ever tried, but if you swish the bearings around in a little WD40 that will also work. Finally I put my pedal back together and it felt noticeably different, but was still lacking something that i knew could be improved on. I finally realized the hinge at the bottom of the footplate. Took that apart and that was the dirtiest part of the pedal. Made a massive difference when I put it back together.

Anyway, the main morals of the story are clean gunk out, clean your bearings well, and don't forget about the hinge at the bottom of the footplate.

Good advice. Pedals are simple to work on and it's good to take them completely apart every couple of years and give it some cleaning and oiling.
 
Not sure why you said not to use WD40. I used it on my IC shaft because my slave was squeeking (it was actually the linkage between the shaft and the right pedal). And now it doesn't squeek at all.
 
Yeah, WD40 really does a fine job at making things run smooth. Maybe it's not meant as a lubricant but it works as such... I also use it on my bicycle's derailer and chain sometimes, though I generally use PTFE spray these days. More lubricating than WD40 but without the cleaning effect.
 
yr WD40 is a moisture expeller hence why it can prevent rust etc. plus it is a slippery liquid so works as a lube as well
 
If you get WD40 on the tabs that the drive shaft attaches to, your drive shaft will slide off during use. I had this happen repeatedly during a show. DO NOT use WD40, as stated earlier, take the pedal apart and properly lube the moving parts.
 
+1 on the DO NOT use WD40 part. At the very least, WD40 in this situation will attract more dirt than you need and makes things even worse over time. Plus it's messy if you're set-up on somebody's nice carpet too.

I also recommend taking that thing apart and cleaning it and lubing it back up with the proper grease. If you have to replace a part, then that's what you have to do. Double pedal linkage parts are put under a lot of stress, which is why they're designed quite a bit more robustly today than they were back in the early 80s.
 
Boy this is an old thread! use white lithium grease, it stays on and doesn't drip. same stuff they use on car door hinges.
 
We need to get the engineers in here and make a thread on lubricants. I'm looking up at my shelf right now and side by side are WD40, Tri-Flow Teflon and Prolong SPL100. The blonde, brunette and redhead of lubricants. If I can't work it out with those three I'm tossin' it.

Sometimes I combine all three and the problem part just starts working out of fear.
 
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