Post by duke on Jan 25, 2016 9:32:35 GMT
OK so I've come across an head scratcher. On Friday night i decided to change my stem, i have a spare 50mm stem which at first i though wouldn't clamp my bars but it turns out it does, so i took my old one off and removed a spacer ad the spare stem i have is an ugly DH stem but i wanted to put it on just so i didn't have the huge current stem on. Now what was meant to be a 5 minute job turned into a 45 minute one and i still have my old stem on, i had to give up.
The problem was as soon as i fitted the 50mm stem there were loads of play in the headset and the forks just wobbled all over, i had compressed the bearings as much as i could and there was still loads of play... I thought I'll try and put the old one back on as there was zero play so i added the spacer back on an put the old one back on and there was no play what so ever, so i swapped them again and same thing loads of play, i put loads of pressure down on the new stem and tightened it all up and managed to eliminate a lot of the play, but there was still some play in it, so i gave up and put the old one back on again.
Any ideas why, I've had the same stem on a different bike and i didn't have this problem...
One thing that does concern me is that the headset seemed to come apart very easily, the caged bearings just dropped out of the bottom and the top ones seemed to be loose as well until i fitted the old stem again, they don't feel rough and there is no play with the old stem on so i don't think it needs replacing, it could do with a good greasing but that's getting done in 2 weeks when I'm off work.
So any ideas?
Any help much appreciated as always!
Duke
The problem was as soon as i fitted the 50mm stem there were loads of play in the headset and the forks just wobbled all over, i had compressed the bearings as much as i could and there was still loads of play... I thought I'll try and put the old one back on as there was zero play so i added the spacer back on an put the old one back on and there was no play what so ever, so i swapped them again and same thing loads of play, i put loads of pressure down on the new stem and tightened it all up and managed to eliminate a lot of the play, but there was still some play in it, so i gave up and put the old one back on again.
Any ideas why, I've had the same stem on a different bike and i didn't have this problem...
One thing that does concern me is that the headset seemed to come apart very easily, the caged bearings just dropped out of the bottom and the top ones seemed to be loose as well until i fitted the old stem again, they don't feel rough and there is no play with the old stem on so i don't think it needs replacing, it could do with a good greasing but that's getting done in 2 weeks when I'm off work.
So any ideas?
Any help much appreciated as always!
Duke
