Stuck Speed King Spring Tension Screw

V

vyacheslav

Senior Member
Greetings,

I have restored about a dozen vintage Speed Kings over the years, and I am very familiar with how they function and I consider myself an experienced Speed King restorer. The one I have now has one of the spring tension screws underneath completely stuck/frozen (the other came out fine with a little bit of "coaxing"). I imagine it is probably due to rust or corrosion, however the pedal still functions "normally" (normal for a gunked up Speed King, anyway), so I'm not sure it would function as well if there were rust and corrosion on the spring/inside the post, especially with the other spring removed. Sometimes the pedal gets dropped or damaged and the post the tension screw threads into can become out of round, making the screw very hard to get out or turn. This is not the case on this one either.

I've tried 3-in-1 Oil, Liquid Wrench and even a product called PB Blaster, which is supposed to work very well in freeing stuck screws/parts. I have applied all of these liberally and kept the pedal upside down (leaning against a box) to let the various products soak in overnight (as much as they could soak in...it's a pretty tight seal). It still won't budge, and I'm using a heavy duty, well built slotted screwdriver that is a good 16" long from end to end, so I have plenty of torque. I turn as hard as I possibly can. Nothing.

This one has me stumped. I've never been able to not get one out before. Any ideas or suggestions? For next steps, I was thinking about either:

A)-Heating the post with a heat gun to maybe loosen up some of the gunk or rust (and using a pot holder to handle it!). It would expand the post slightly, but would also expand the screw as well.

or trying the opposite

B)-Leaving it in the freezer overnight. Again, it's a Catch 22, because the screw would contract slightly, but so would the post.

Do either of these ideas sound reasonable?

Thanks for your help!

V
 
Last edited:
vyacheslav said:
Greetings,

I have restored about a dozen vintage Speed Kings over the years, and I am very familiar with how they function and I consider myself an experienced Speed King restorer. The one I have now has one of the spring tension screws underneath completely stuck/frozen (the other came out fine with a little bit of "coaxing"). I imagine it is probably due to rust or corrosion, however the pedal still functions "normally" (normal for a gunked up Speed King, anyway), so I'm not sure it would function as well if there were rust and corrosion on the spring/inside the post, especially with the other spring removed. Sometimes the pedal gets dropped or damaged and the post the tension screw threads into can become out of round, making the screw very hard to get out or turn. This is not the case on this one either.

I've tried 3-in-1 Oil, Liquid Wrench and even a product called PB Blaster, which is supposed to work very well in freeing stuck screws/parts. I have applied all of these liberally and kept the pedal upside down (leaning against a box) to let the various products soak in overnight (as much as they could soak in...it's a pretty tight seal). It still won't budge, and I'm using a heavy duty, well built slotted screwdriver that is a good 16" long from end to end, so I have plenty of torque. I turn as hard as I possibly can. Nothing.

This one has me stumped. I've never been able to not get one out before. Any ideas or suggestions? For next steps, I was thinking about either:

A)-Heating the post with a heat gun to maybe loosen up some of the gunk or rust (and using a pot holder to handle it!). It would expand the post slightly, but would also expand the screw as well.

or trying the opposite

B)-Leaving it in the freezer overnight. Again, it's a Catch 22, because the screw would contract slightly, but so would the post.

Do either of these ideas sound reasonable?

Thanks for your help!

V
Click to expand...
I would try the heat gun. Heat the post, and it will expand before it has much time to transfer heat to the screw.

Good luck! It's good to hear these great old pedals are being restored.
 
"Stuck....Stuck"......been there....I sometimes clamp some vice grips to the slotted screwdriver to get some sideways torque.
If you have another cap, you could drill a hole in the stuck one and try an eazy-out.
Not sure how thick those Ludwig threaded caps are sir.
Good Luck
 
can you spray some loosen it from the top after removing chrome bearing cap / let trickle down
 
I second the impact driver. It has internal helical gears - when you hit it with a hammer, the driver twists in your hand, so you get downward impact and torque at the same time.

Before you try the impact driver, get a screwdriver that fits tight in the slot and whack it good with a hammer. Sometimes the impact will break the corrosion bond in the screw threads. If that doesn't work, go with the impact driver. Best of luck!
 
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