Changing forks

dannyfrankszzz said:

I'm currently in the process of changing my forks over.

I've managed to get the forks off the bike but the
adjusting cap, bolt and nuts seem to be stuck inside the
steerer. I've been banging away with a wooden mallet and a
bit of a wood, liberally applying WD40, but I don't seem
to be getting much movement.

Is my approach wrong or should I just persevere?

Thanks, Danny.

If its aheadset the nut inside the steerer is better
replaced with a new one. The only way to extract it is to
knock it all the way through and out the bottom. Not sure
how you got the forks off without taking the stem off and
you can't do that with the top cap in place so what
exactly is stuck?

Tony

Tony Raven said:

dannyfrankszzz said:

I'm currently in the process of changing my forks over.

I've managed to get the forks off the bike but the
adjusting cap, bolt and nuts seem to be stuck inside the
steerer. I've been banging away with a wooden mallet and
a bit of a wood, liberally applying WD40, but I don't
seem to be getting much movement.

Is my approach wrong or should I just persevere?

Thanks, Danny.

If its aheadset the nut inside the steerer is better
replaced with a new one. The only way to extract it is to
knock it all the way through and out the bottom.

If necessary, the old star nut can be tapped down out of
harm's way and left there; new one inserted above.

Quoted message said:

Not sure how you got the forks off without taking the stem
off and you can't do that with the top cap in place so
what exactly is stuck?

I've barely got the faintest idea with what's happening with
Danny's bike, to be honest.

~PB

OK, you'll have to excuse my terminology. My cycle vocabulary is perhaps a bit lacking. Ignore what I said about the cap.

However, you seem to have answered my question:

"If its aheadset the nut inside the steerer is better
replaced with a new one. The only way to extract it is to
knock it all the way through and out the bottom."

I couldn't understand why I could only knock the nut down through the steerer and not up.

Anyway, it should be plain sailing from here.

Thanks.

dannyfrankszzz said:

I couldn't understand why I could only knock the nut down
through the steerer and not up.

Its fitted with upward facing leaves that dig in and prevent
it moving up - which is what you want as you are screwing a
bolt into it to pull the headset cap down. Its designed
therefore to only move in one direction - down - and to jam
in the other direction - up

Tony

I'll probably buy a new nut for the new forks anyway.

I'm currently trying to refit the forks (replacement fork was too short) but now there seems to be a problem with the bolt - it won't jam into the sides of the steerer.

I presume this is because the leaves have been bent upwards from when I was forcing the bolt through the bottom end of the steerer.

Can I try and gently bend the leaves back outwards again or should I just forget it and purchase a new one?

dannyfrankszzz said:

I'm currently trying to refit the forks (replacement fork
was too short) but now there seems to be a problem with
the bolt - it won't jam into the sides of the steerer.

I presume this is because the leaves have been bent
upwards from when I was forcing the bolt through the
bottom end of the steerer.

Can I try and gently bend the leaves back outwards again
or should I just forget it and purchase a new one?

It's called a Star nut AFAIK. You can hold the fork on just
with the clamping mechanism of the stem, the top cap's not
vital. Sheldon Brown mentions it somewhere in one of his
articles, so it must be ok 😉.

Doki said:

You can hold the fork on just with the clamping mechanism
of the stem, the top cap's not vital.

Only once you've preloaded the headset by tightening up the
bolt into the star nut and then secured your stem. So yes,
you need to buy a new star nut, they don't cost much.

Simonb said:

Quoted message said:

You can hold the fork on just with the clamping mechanism
of the stem, the top cap's not vital.

Only once you've preloaded the headset by tightening up
the bolt into the star nut and then secured your stem. So
yes, you need to buy a new star nut, they don't cost much.

Star nut & bolt is the usual solution (for steel and
aluminium steerers) but there alternatives including wedging
devices or "bungs". The headset can even be preloaded just
by pressing the stem down by hand. Crude but it works. The
hole can then be filled with something.

~PB