I am tring to ship a bike i have but cant get the stem out. its an older bike that the stem goes into the headset. There was a bolt on top which i took out and a nut on the headset which i loosened all the way. It wont come out. i have pulled pretty hard. am i missing something or just pull harder?
Is it a steel frame? If so it may be rusted in place, you may not be able to get it out. I once heard a mechanic in a very reputable shop ask a young lady if she thought the seat height was ok on her old steel steed. She replied that it was just fine. Mechanic says “good, because that sucker is rusted in there good, we couldn’t get it out”. You may have this problem.
It sounds like it’s become frozen in there. Probably been in a very long time or was never put in with any grease. I had one like this on an old bike and it eventually came by whacking upwards with a rubber mallot. Just keep tugging, pulling and twisting.
Step 1: Put the stem bolt back in and hope that it will thread in the binder bolt.
Step 2: Tighten the binder bolt about 3-4 turns. Get hammer and tap the stem bolt down. This releases the binder bolt that is holding your stem in the frame
Step 3: Remove stem and binder bolt
Now, if you can’t get the bolt back in, try twisting the stem in the frame. WD-40 works to loosen it up so squirt some in there if you can’t get it.
Worst case, bring it to a shop and they can remove it for you.
Learning lesson, don’t remove the bolt next time, simply loosen it and tap it with a hammer and viola!
Loosen the bolt slightly(just a little) then hit the head of the bolt,this will drive the wedge down and should loosen the stem
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worked liek a charm. Only hit it once and not even that hard. thanks
you forgot step 4- put bike upsidedown on ground, stand on handlebars. wedge 2x4 between fork blades and hit 2x4 with hammer.
works like a charm.
the bad part is when the expander wedge for the quill has rusted in place. getting that out can be challenging.
J
you can try turning the bike upside down and putting liquid wrench into the head tube thru the fork and let it sit over night. If that doesn’t work, I hear Coke a Cola might work, wouldn’t leave that in there for too long however.
Great, when you reinstall it be carefull if you grease it, most greases are not waterproof and will cause a stem to get stuck,i used to make custom stems and had to remove a lot of stuck ones to install the stems i made,and almost every stuck stem had grease on it
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that will be the next guys problem i sold the bike. thats why i have to ship it.