Bike started creaking. I know that creaks can appear to come from one place but actually come from another place on the bike. But the creaks appeared to come from the handlebars so I decided to look there anyway. I tightened everything down - everything was already VERY tight and I managed to round off a couple of my cheap ass allen keys.

Then I looked down below the handlebars and at my headtube. What's this part that's not level with the spacers? Headset seal? A problem or no?

Take it apart and look at the parts. Threadless stuff is easy to tear down.

don't over tighten things ..

re grease the head set bearing balls while it's apart ..

Being that your spacers need to bear down on the headset evenly, that doesn't look right. It might not be the source of your noise, but you'll probably want to look at it.

And repeating what fietsbob said, don't over-tighten things!

OP; It looks hinkey and I don't know what it is. Could it be a front stem mount cable stop from an old pair of canti's or center-pull brakes (if so, it is one from the wrong stem diameter and thus it could mash off to the side). Example might be a 28mm or a 25.4mm stop on a 0.833 stem or something like that. Also could be a mount for an old headlamp, handlebar bag, etc. The missing picture from the other side should have clues.

First lesson in bike mechanics should be... don't over tighten stuff. That just makes situation worse. Second lesson might be to "get a torque wrench" so you can take it apart, inspect, clean, grease and reassemble to spec. That will quite often get rid of squeaks and also often help you find little problems before they become expensive problems. Recommend the smaller wrench from Park Tools. Get a metric allen/hex-head bit set also...you will need them from about 4mm up to 12mm (check your bikes to see the range needed). A small set of metric sockets to fit your wrench also a good idea (it will be either 3/8" or 1/4"). Consult Sheldon's and the OEM pages for advice on how much torque to apply to this or that bolt depending on the thread and what alloy it is made out of. You can always post here also for advice on such as most of us who have the proper tools have used them here and there [;-**

Note: And yes about 40% of folks posting here, who otherwise routinely offer excellent advice, will then tell you that you don't need to waste money on a torque wrench. I am in the other 60% group and routinely get bikes in for expensive and avoidable repairs from that 40% group. I love taking their money!

Hope that helps
/K

You guys are right, torque wrenches are important. Unfortunately for some reason all the bolts near the stem/handlebar area on this particular bike are way, way oversized. I have a torque wrench preset at 5 N*m but that only helps with the 5mm and 4mm hex bolts. Not 8mm bolts.

I don't feel that I have overtightened anything as the allen keys I tried immediately rounded off like butter and the stem says the max torque is 11-12 N*m, which I doubt I got to. In any case I've ordered a set of higher quality metric allen keys and I will back off every bolt completely when I get them and I will look into getting a torque wrench for re-installation!

The stem of my Specialized Tricross had a shim to fine tune the angle down to a couple of degrees. But, it threw everything out of kilter, so the whole stem went away.

Perhaps one of your spacers is angled to match a similar shim.

Nonetheless, as others have mentioned, you need to figure out what happened.

The angled part seems to be the centering cone. Being conical, they tend to be very self-centering into the corresponding taper. So somrthing is very wrong.

I thin k I see a stepped spacer that maybe is supposed to pocket into the cone, and maybe isn't. Pull it apart, and reassemble checking that every single part sits squarely on it's mate before adding the next one in the stack.

or it could be the upper outer bearing race is not seated square in the head tube.

You're right, the angled part appears to be the centering cone. When I took everything apart, below the spaces was that angled part. Then below that was some sort of thin seal. And below that were the caged bearings.

The centering cone was threaded but I couldn't get it to thread into anything ... there wasn't anything for it to thread into. That's why it wasn't level. Why would my bike have come with a threaded centering cone then??

Where can I get a press-fit centering cone?

Did you buy the bike new?

Is the part needed? What is it like without the threaded part?

If required, they're part of the New headset when you get it.. Asked at LBS Yet?

(none is needed with my 1 integrated Headset on a threadless Steerer tube bike (sealed cartridge bearings)

could be a part that could be included for threaded headsets. IDK, I'm not there to see the job.

Sorry, I don't know why I thought the centering cone was threaded. Complete mistake on my part. It's not threaded.

I managed to align the centering cone so that it bears down on all the bearings evenly by moving the fork around as I tightened down the top cap on the stem.

The way the centering cone is angled toward me, along with the fact that the top cap was very loose when I first started unscrewing it, suggests to me that my tugging at the handlebars in the past week had loosened the top cap bolt and caused the centering cone to go out of alignment.

Good thing I found this now, otherwise I might have been looking at some new bearings at the very least!

Was this bike bought new, and/or is this the original headset.

A threadless headset uses a split centering cone which matches the taper on the upper race and constricts on the tube as it presses down.

If a threaded cone fits over the steerer, it must be threaded for the next size up, ie. a 1-1/8" threaded cone slipping over a 1" tube. But that would be for a threaded headset, so no matter how you slice it you have the wrong part. Centering cones aren't all the same, and usually aren't sold separately. You might find the one you need in the junk bin of a decent shop or bike co-op.

In a pinch you can sometimes improvise a centering cone from a neoprene O-ring. To work it has to be thick enough that you can't pack it fully into the upper race's taper. If the ring compresses to where the parts above touch the bearing the system won't function as designed, and you'll have symproms of a loose headset.