The headset on the mantra has been feeling a bit loose following a long
very rough downhill, and tightening it up didn't seem to help. So I
decided to strip it. And, of course, the steerer was jammed and
wouldn't come out. So, of course, I hit it with a rubber mallet and it
still wouldn't come out so I hit it harder, as one does, and then it
did come out rather rapidly and the balls went all over the floor.
Balls!
So I got out a magnet and crawled all over the floor and found not
_quite_ enough balls. After much muttering I cleaned the bearing up and
regreased it and reassembled it with the balls I had, and it felt sort
of OK... but I wasn't happy because I knew it wasn't right so I went to
my LBS and bought more balls. And took the headset apart and put what
looked like enough balls in[1] and slid the fork back in... and some
balls fell out.
Balls!
So I dropped the fork an inch until I could see the bottom race and
carefully put what looked like the right number of balls in[1], and
pushed the fork back up and started tightening things... and there was
a 'plop' on the bit of newspaper I had on the floor and there was
another ball. And the bearing _feels_ all right...
So I'm telling myself that that ball must have been adhering to the
wheel or something and didn't fall out of the race, or at least not
just then. I hope.
Which brings me to the point of this diatribe.
Does anyone have any clever tricks for keeping the balls in the bottom
race as you're reassembling a headset? I'm not having any difficulties
with the top race, but the bottom race is causing me mucho grief.
[1] Yes, I am remembering to leave a one-ball gap.
--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
;; An enamorata is for life, not just for weekends.