Originally Posted by
sortieavelo
Hi, this is my first try at installing a sealed-bearing headset. Model is FSA Orbit MX 1-1/8 threadless.
when I dry fit the bottom part, there is a gap at the top of the fork race, maybe a couple mm, but it doesn’t look right.
if I take out the little metal collar, the gap tightens a bit but the action isn’t as smooth. So that doesn’t seem right either.
Any thoughts?
You appear to have one too many parts. I suspect that the part that the red arrow points to in the picture below was on the fork when you took it off the bike. It’s probably the crown race from the original headset. You need to remove it.
The metal “collar”
The race marked with the yellow arrow shouldn’t be there and the race marked with the red arrow should sit flush on the crown.
If you don’t have a
crown race removal tool (most people don’t), you can remove the race with a screw driver (be very careful around the carbon bits!) or (better) get a
bearing splitter. You can get them from a bunch of different places and might be able to rent one or borrow one from an auto parts store.