aka Tom Reingold
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: New York, NY, and High Falls, NY, USA
Posts: 40,502
Bikes: 1962 Rudge Sports, 1971 Raleigh Super Course, 1971 Raleigh Pro Track, 1974 Raleigh International, 1975 Viscount Fixie, 1982 McLean, 1996 Lemond (Ti), 2002 Burley Zydeco tandem
Mentioned: 511 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 7348 Post(s)
Having an extra ball is much worse than missing one. "When in doubt, take one out." There should be a small gap slightly narrower than the width of one ball. If you can't see the width clearly, it will look like a gap big enough for a ball.
Be sure you are holding the adjustable cup well with a wrench or giant channel-lock while tightening the locknut.
Another possibility is that the fixed cups are not parallel. Normally, you would have them reseated, but if they're not parallel on a bike this old, it's a sign that the head tube could be damaged. I don't know if you can even get a French-threaded headset any more. Which leads me to say:
Sorry, but this bike may not be worth fixing. I faced this a few months ago, too, with a Peugeot from about the same year. Can't complain, given that it lasted this long. I retired the bike and moved many of the parts to another frame.