Quil stem & Fork Steerer stuck fast

[mudcow007]

Afternoon all

im in the (very slow) process or restoring a Royal Enfield Bullet road bike, according to the bicycle museum it dates to around 1963

the bike is stripped to frame an forks so far, but i need to remove the forks for sandblasting

i've undone the headset lockrings aswell as the stembolt but the stem is stuck inside the steerer tube of the forks

im worried about clamping the steerer crown in a vice then twisting the stem as i dont want to bend anything

any ideas?

 

[Takingabreak]

Putting the wheel and bars back on would give you some more leverage. Have you given it plenty of penetrating oil and given the stem bolt a whack with a mallet to free it?

 

[mudcow007]

Putting the wheel and bars back on would give you some more leverage. Have you given it plenty of penetrating oil and given the stem bolt a whack with a mallet to free it?

good shout!

ive left it for the time being covered in oil, im hoping some will penetrate through the rust/ crap

i was worried about hitting the bolt incase it damaged the threads

i dont really care about the stem, i have a replacement GB to go on, in its place

 

[Johnsqual]

Is it a steel or aluminium stem?

If it's steel, penetrating oil may help free it.

If it's aluminium, there are various suggestions about soaking
in coca-cola, ammonia or other chemicals to loosen the bond,
but some people are skeptical about these - see below.

http://sheldonbrown.com/stuck-seatposts.html

The other options for aluminium are the extreme ones of cutting
out the stem, or dissolving it in caustic soda. The last is messy and
potentially dangerous but it works.

You are right to be wary of the vice method, which carries a risk of bending the for or drop out.

One other thing - did you get the cone wedge out when you removed the
bolt? Or is it possible it's still inside the stem?

Good luck,

Johnny

 

[Takingabreak]

Hence the "give the bolt a whack with a mallet" to free up the wedge

 

[Johnsqual]

You won't normally have a problem with damaging the threads of the expander cone. I've had a couple of quite stubborn stems and never
damaged the threads.

It's worth putting something over the bolt head where it comes out of the
stem - a bit of plastic or wood, so you don't damage the head when you hit it.

Johnny

 

[mudcow007]

thanks all i will keep you updated

 

[gregs656]

Clamping the forks in a engineers vice with wooden blocks isn't too dodgy if you clamp a reasonable distance up the forks, and don't use an enormous amount of leverage that would allow you to put big forces through the forks without really noticing it.

Bear in mind that any penetrating oil or cocacola or what ever needs to go in from the bottom!

I would definitely try twisting them out, you might find it takes surprisingly little effort.

 

[mudcow007]

all i can say is

Thank you!

i gave the stem bolt a "wack" an the forks basically fell out of the frame

marvellous

i had kinda forgotten about the wedge thingy

 

[gregs656]

Glad to hear you got it sorted. Pics?