Tenacious stem

[ConnoisseurEquator]

Hi
I have a tenacious stem which refuse to leave its hole.
It moves, up and down, turns right or left, but refuses to come out.
I tried gentle, I tried some force.
Nothing.
Any ideas?
Thanks

 

[goldcoastjon]

What did you do so far?

Did you you loosen the stem bolt first, then tap the stem bolt with your rubber mallet to loosen it?

What happened when you loosened the stem bolt? What happened when you tapped the stem bolt with your rubber mallet to loosen it?

You may need to loosen the bolt further and/or hit it again - and harder - to loosen it. (Don't ever hit the loosened bolt head directly with a steel hammer: use a block of wood on the bolt head to protect the stem and frame.)

Go slowly after your initial attempts: the stem and/or the stem wedge might be rusted into the head tube: this happens, and requires loosening the stem and head tube's interior with Liquid Wrench, Kroil, or other solvents to un-freeze the stuck parts.

Good luck!

 

[biggs682]

Same as @goldcoastjon

 

[midlife]

Is it a Raleigh 20 or similar?

 

[Illaveago]

If you have tried all of the above you may have to resort to further measures . I had a similar problem with the stem on my Dawes Red Feather .
We are assuming that you have a steel frame with an aluminium stem .
You can read what I did to mine if you can find the "Dawes Red Feather Find." Basically I tried different liquids to break the seal between the expander and the stem , de rusting solution, caustic soda, and even lime juice . Once that I could see that the level of liquid was dropping I knew that some of the seal had broken . I then tried a blow lamp placed in to the stem from the fork end . Once I could feel the frame was getting warm I quenched the stem with water . I then hit the bolt which loosened the expander.
You will need to tighten the expander bolt up before you pour any liquid in or you will just make a mess !

 

[Sharky]

Are you wanting to raise or lower the stem?

If all of the good suggestions above are unsuccessful .......

If you remove the bolt, I guess the stem will come out, leaving the stuck wedge inside.
If you are wanting to raise the stem, a new replacement wedge or a new stem might have enough room to leave the stuck one inside and to forget it.
I did similar with a quill to ahead converter and just left the stuck wedge inside.

Good luck

 

[figbat]

Is it a Raleigh 20 or similar?

...the implication being, I assume, that there is a safety device fitted to these to prevent their complete removal. A wire loops through the mounting bolt of the front brake caliper so to remove the stem you need to remove the front brake. This is because shoppers such as the Twenty had a QR steerer clamp to allow quick and easy resizing, but this also meant the stem could accidentally be completely removed, hence the safety wire.