On Aug 24, 1:51 pm, Rob Morley <
[email protected]> wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>, Neil Smith
> [email protected] says...
>
> > Thanks for sharing your experience. It confirms what I have heard. Thatthis
> > is a very difficult and time consuming operation. Plus I believe there are
> > special risks of damaging the frame as it is the front end.
>
> It's not really difficult or dangerous, it just requires a little care
> and quite a lot of patience. There's absolutely no risk of damaging the
> frame - once you've decapitated the stem you can remove the forks and
> stick them in a vice. Or take them to a framebuilder who will probably
> remove the stem for around £20.
Seconded - cut the stem off, get the fork out of the frame, strip it
down, then go to work on it. You'll have more room to work, and if
somthing does go wrong, you'll "only" damage the fork (assuming that
the stem is a goner already).
Also seconded - let the oil do the work. Plug the end of the stem,
put the assembly upside down in a vice, fill the steerer tube with
light penetrating fluid, leave it alone for a few days, the try again.
If you have a scrap fork with the same size steerer tube, or a length
of tubing with the same inside diameter, you can use that with the old
stem bold and wedge nut to build a puller.
Get a length of said tubing 1/2" longer than the length of the exposed
length of the stump of the stem.
Put it over the exposed end of the stump so it sits on the steerer.
Now take the old stem bolt, add a suitable washer so that it can't
fall into the new "steerer tube extension", put it down through the
centre of the stem. Turn the old wedge nut "upside down", so that it
will no longer jam the ned of the stem, and thread it back onto the
bolt in the steerer tube. You may have to shorten the length of the
piece of tube you added so that the stem bolt is long enough to allow
the old wedge nut to be threaded on.
Tighten up the stem bolt above the washer. The tension on the bolt is
now trying to pull the stump of the stem out of the steerer, and up
into the extra piece of tube you added. You may have to jam the
reversed wedge nut with an old screwdriver or similar to prevent it
rotating in the steerer.
Wind on slowly, and continue to add penetrating oil top and bottom,
leaving time for it to work in before winding on a few more turns.
The sustained preassure of this approach has worked for me on one
occasion where trying to tap the stump out with a drift has failed.
hth,
bookieb