What's up guys.
I recently found out my headset is loose and cannot seem to get it nice and firm for the life of me.

Upon taking it apart I narrowed it down to one piece that should fit into a larger washer of the 2 that
is needed to keep the fork stem firm.
Not sure if it's supposed to have a slit or is actually cracked.

I've taken some pics for some advice.

The washer (dunno the name) on the bottom of the 3 pieces pictured doesn't slip into the bigger washer in the middle.




more pics>>>>












Any opinions or direct link to this problem would be greatly appreciated
thx!

In your first picture:

The first piece (largest, black) is the dust cap. That goes on top of the headset, but under the stem spacers.

The second piece (medium) is the actual bearing cartridge. It goes straight into the headtube with the chamfered face down. You've got it correct in your pictures.

The third piece is the split ring aka centering sleeve and yes, it's supposed to have the slit in it. It centers the fork steerer tube in the bearing. Push it down into the middle of the bearing (again, looks like you have it correct in your pictures).

The dust cap goes on top, like you have it, then the stem spacers, then the stem, then the top-cap.

Make sure the bearing at the bottom of the head tube is in place, too.

Once everything is in place and seated properly, MAKE SURE that the top of the fork tube doesn't stick out from the top of the stem/spacer stack. The spacers + stem have to reach slightly above it or else the top-cap can't pull the headset tight. Is that a carbon steerer? Looks like the expander plug is sticking quite far out of the top of the tube, which might be your problem. Be wary of adjusting that yourself if you don't know what you're doing. You could easily damage the fork if you do something wrong.

The expander plug and the top cap tighten similarly, and you do not want to get them mixed up. Sort that out before you tighten anything.

And completely clean off the outside surfaces of all these parts as well as the fork and head tube bearing resting surfaces. Then apply a thin coating of wheel bearing grease before assembling. Andy.

Looking at the setup, it could well be the bung (in the top of the steerer) that you are using. That fork steerer is CF? if so, that makes the type of bung being used correct, but there are several different designs of bung, and I had one like yours which would never do up tight, replaced with a different design one (not a star-fangled nut), which fixed the issue.

For the crack, as #Yellowbeard notes, it's designed that way, the whole lot looks like it could do with a wipe over clean.

I think your expander plug isn't far enough in.

From this pic it looks to me like you could easily push it in 5 mm more.



If the expansion plug pulls out while tightening the top cap then you'll have to see what is causing that to happen.

Thanks for all your inputs guys.
I took a chance to see if a bike shop will find out what's wrong with it without robbing me blind.

And, after paying them 20 bucks, the mechanic said it was put in the wrong way.
scratching my head on this one.
Must have been when I was switching out the stem and the parts came out and put it back
not thinking it needs to go in a certain way.