Quill Stem problem



A

Andrew Clark

Guest
Off on a short tour this Friday which means bagging the bike. I decided to
check that I was OK to rotate the bars (new cables). No problem, cables are
long enough.

Problem, when I go to tighten the stem up the expanding wedge won't engage.
Take it out of the bike, clean it, check the threads are OK and put it back.
Same problem, the allen bolt just keeps rotating! It tightens up OK off the
bike though....

Stem is a Nitto (Shimano Ultegra at a 1/3 of the price) I've had it for
about 4 years and it's seen plenty of rough stuff, always been rock solid.

Can anyone suggest what's gone wrong and how I can fix it ?

Luckily I've got an old stem in the parts box which does tighten properly,
however it's a Cinelli with a 26.4 clamp. The 3TTT Morphe bars are specced
at 25.8 and the Nitto is 26:00.

I've got some Cinelli bars as well but would prefer to keep the 3TTT's on.
Am I heading for facial reconstruction if I use this combination?

Thanks

Andrew