aubeONE

Actually it's the stem stuck oin the steerer tube.

I'm trying to adjust the height of my bars, and they wont move. I've backed out the quill bolt, tapped down the wedge and lubed the snot out of it with penetrating fluid.....am I missing something?

Anyone have any ideas?

sch

Sheldon's site doesn't have much to encourage about this problem. I assume you turned the bike upside down and dumped penetrating oil down the inside of the fork head tube which is the only good access to the area of the problem? If so, and if clamping the fork between wooden or plastic blocks in a vise and rotating doesn't work you may just have to live with the problem or see if the LBS has any better ideas.
This assumes a steel fork/headtube. Clamping a CF fork and applying torque is probably not a good idea,
though I would not be adverse to the torque applied by holding the wheel in the fork between your legs and torquing the bars.

jgedwa

I would think that there is no stuck stem in the world that would resist the methods of SCH above. With enough penetrating oil (and time! let it soak in for a few days. Reapply. Wait. Reapply...) and enough leverage, it will come out. I promise.

San Rensho 

Try strong ammonia as a penetrant.

blamp28

Heat?

unkchunk

+1 on the time thing. Was siezed on Friday, went away for the weekend, came off easy on Monday. Maybe you could help it along further by leaving it in the garage or some place winter cold by day, move it back inside to heat at night and do that contract and expand thing for a few days.

jbrians

what about letting the wedge fall down and out of the bottom of the steerer tube (remove the front brake bolt first) and then using a drift see if you can knock the stem out from the bottom?

aubeONE

I've tried the holding the wheel between the legs thing, and it's not going anywhere.

After my rip on the trainer tonight I'm gonna invert and fill with p.lube. I didn't think of inverting...then if that doesn't work, I might try knocking it out from below.

What I'm thiniking now is letting it be for now, unttil I find the CF fork I want (and can afford) and then worrying about all this. I mean, I know it's not going anywhere anytime soon...

Thanks for the insight.

caloso

Have you tried a mallet? (Or a hammer and wood block?) A couple of good whacks might knock the wedge out.

TimJ

Search the forums for "stuck stem" or "stuck seatpost", there's been a lot of discussion of that problem with a lot of advice. Penetrating oil generally isn't what you want to use unless you're dealing with steel on steel. Ammonia is what breaks down oxidation on aluminum so if it's an aluminum stem use ammonia.

If you try soaking it in ammonia for a few days and it won't move through any brute force method, you may have to dissolve the aluminum with some lye. I had a stuck stem and even with soaking it wouldn't budge- I had the fork braced and put a long bar through the stem, just trying to get it to turn a little. I pulled so hard I bent and ruined the thick aluminum the stem- but still it didn't budge in the steerer. I had to melt it out eventually.

Search the forum and try all the tricks and if they don't work, cut the stem off and melt it away.

CentPARider

I had this same problem. I had the LBS try when I got the bike checked out. They could not get it to come out. After a year of riding and wanting to raise the stem a little, I inverted the bike and filled the forks with oil (removed front brake), and then ammonia, (wasn’t sure if the tube was CRMO or ALU) and soaked, to no avail. I mounted the bike in the trainer with the front forks clamped down and twisted. Nothing. This past weekend I ended up cutting the stem with a hacksaw. It took about 10 minutes. Removed the headset nuts, and voila.

I just ordered a new 1” threaded CF fork, Zoom quill stem, headset spacers and new Cinelli tape from Nashbar for under $150 (Didn’t want to spend a lot either, looking for a new bike next year). I was going to try to get the remainder of the old quill stem out of the tube, but the tube corrosion was pretty extensive, and I twisted the forks pretty hard in the trainer (fork legs are ALU – I don’t recommend doing this). Plus, I wasn’t sure if the tube would be damaged in the removal process. New parts will be greased extensively and often.