Bicycle Mechanics - Perpetually Loose Stem

Hi Everyone.

So I recently had to turn the handle bars on my bike sideways to fit it into a bike box for a train. When I was rotating them (even after loosening the stem bolt quite a bit) I heard kindof a crack. They turned fine and I tightened them back up, but when I was trying to get it back to normal, I realized that no matter how much I tightened the bolt, the stem and bars still come out of alignment with little force. I think it has something to do with that little angled nut thinger down in the stem, but I don't know what to do about it (besides taking it to the shop)

Does anyone know what's going on?

Thanks!
Dylan

is the little "nut thinger" still attached to the bolt? Remove stem completely...verify that "nut thinger" is still attached. If not, there's the problem......

let me know and if it still slips, we'll go to plan "b"

Probably you loosened the bolt enough that it's nut fell down into the head tube. Try removing the stem and flipping the frame upside down to see if it will fall out.

I had this happen to me a few weeks ago, I kept tightening and eventually the stem bolt broke. Little bugger of a nut would NOT tighten. Got a bolt/nut from the parts bin, installed, and tightened up and worked like normal.

If there is no tightening, the nut has dropped, if it is tight but just not tight enough, remove it and replace.

Cool mans. Yeah, I did the flip the frame thing and it caught the wedge (i found out what the thinger was called), but the stem has still been loose. I'll just dig through my old parts and find a new one and see what happens. Thanks!!!

It's possible it was grossly overtightened at one point, and split the steerer tube of the fork. No amount of tightening will make the stem tighten up then.,,,,BD