Alt Bike Culture - Removing a baulky stem nut on a '60s American middleweight

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.



PDA
rch427
10-01-10, 09:12 PM
I'm in the process of refurbishing a late-'60s/early-'70s middleweight American bike for my wife. The one bit that's holding me up is that I can't manage to remove the nut at the top of the neck. I've tried soaking it with Liquid Wrench, I've tried heating it up with a propane torch, I've offered it cookies, I've threatened it with a turkey baster. Nothing.

I don't suppose that stem nuts were ever reverse-threaded, were they? Any suggestions?

Flying Merkel
10-02-10, 11:29 AM
Try flipping the bike over & squirting the underside of the stem bolt. Vise grips will loosen the bolt, or twist it in half. Either way, your problem is solved.

Unless you mean the nut that holds the fork in the headset. Do what you did, and use a pipe wrench. The nut will be trashed, but it can be replaced.
wrk101
10-02-10, 08:27 PM
Stem nut or headset nut? If it is the headset nut, reinstall the handlebars and stem, they give you a lot more leverage. PB Blaster works a lot better too. So try some of that, you can find PB Blaster at Walmart or Big Lots cheap.