Originally Posted by suzydownstairs
So I took a bike mechanics workshop as a beginner....It was a free class...and we whizzed through everything pretty fast...Anyways...I finished my bike, however the fork seems to be loose inside the stem. When I tightened everything up and installed another washer....it wasn't loose anymore but it was so tight I could hardly steer the wheel
It sounds like you have a threadless stem. If you do, measure your fork's steertube diameter. Is it 1"?
measure your stem clamp diameter where the steertube is inserted. Is it 1 1/8th. If yes you have the wrong size stem and that would be the reason why your fork is loose inside the stem. If you want I can send you a shim to fix this (free - all I need is postage or you can just get the proper 1" stem. Once you have the stem, cut your steertube down so it is about 2mm shorter than your spacers + stem. Then adjust properly and tighten stem. Hope this helps.