Windle
Über Member
- Location
- Burnthouses
Just a poor choice of word on my part, I did actually used some Halfords graphite penetrating fluid and WD40 ~ still didn't budge though.
Quill stem jammed
- Thread starter Andy in Germany
- Start date
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Just a poor choice of word on my part, I did actually used some Halfords graphite penetrating fluid and WD40 ~ still didn't budge though.
OP
OP
Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Freiburg im Breisgau
Not sure tbh. I'm Guessing Alu wedge in a steel stem.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
GuyBoden
Guru
- Location
- Warrington
Aluminium Alloy and Steel is sometimes not a good mix, galvanic corrosion can occur between the two, so difficult to get out.
Gillstay
Über Member
WD40 is just thin oil, its not capable of creeping into the spots you need to reach.
I removed a well stuck stem, I turned the bike upside down and filled the headtube with GT85, I kept it topped up for about a week, then gripped the stem in the vice and used a length of 2x2 timber between the fork blades, working it back and forth until it loosened on, you can't do this with just the wedge stuck, but you can block the headtube off and fill it with release agent.
It was a steel fork though.
It was a steel fork though.
It's very easy to bend the forks doing that
Ian H
Ancient randonneur
The wedges are usually steel, the stems alloy, the steerer steel.
Tail End Charlie
Well, write it down boy ......
- Location
- In green and pleasant hills.
That would be my solution too.
Tail End Charlie
Well, write it down boy ......
- Location
- In green and pleasant hills.
Great, another one who knows the benefits of using diesel. I thought I was the only one!
Cheap, creeps well - what's not to like? I even often use it on my outdoor wooden furniture!
Yes you have to exercise a degree of caution, these were very strong steel forks from a nineties MTB which stood up to my cave man approach.
Windle
Über Member
- Location
- Burnthouses
Well, I finally beat the bugger. I had another crack at it on Friday evening, first of all trying to pull it out using the stem bolt with a washer over the end as suggested by @presta . Of course the stem bolt threads weren't long enough to just use a washer so a big socket had to be employed which gave me a few turns until it locked solid.
A bit of head scratching sussed out that I'd run out of threads so another socket was added (the wedge must be about where the green elastic band is).
With the forks on the floor and a pipe over the allen key for leverage I managed to get the wedge a bit further down the steerer (at about a quarter turn at a time), but it was bloody hard work. All of this brute force, grunting & swearing eventually resulted in stripping the thread in the wedge though 
. (I'm not sue which of the three actually stripped the treads). Plan B ~ drill the bugger out. Putting the fork steerer in the vice I got a decent sized hole (in a few bit size goes) in the main body of the wedge to start with (removing the wedge material right up to the steerer inside), hoping to get the hole large enough to reach the actual bolt hole but ended up about a mm short so I ran a bigger drill bit down the bolt hole, joining the two holes up.
The theory being the gap would flex and the wedge would come loose. Whether a cast wedge would flex I didn't know but a few belts with a hammer and socket bar resulted in the wedge eventually coming out ~ in three pieces,
result! 
Now I can fit the a-head stem adaptor and use a proper, non-ski ramp stem for a better riding position.
. (I'm not sue which of the three actually stripped the treads). Plan B ~ drill the bugger out. Putting the fork steerer in the vice I got a decent sized hole (in a few bit size goes) in the main body of the wedge to start with (removing the wedge material right up to the steerer inside), hoping to get the hole large enough to reach the actual bolt hole but ended up about a mm short so I ran a bigger drill bit down the bolt hole, joining the two holes up.
