I have an old Raleigh I am working on, the stem is stuck inside the steerer tube and so far I have been unable to separate them. It is nothing special, but there is a certain amount of pride wrapped up in rescuing/salvaging this frame.

I have turned the frame upside down and let some naval jelly sit, hoping it would seep down between the stem and tube. I have used liquid wrench and I have used what muscle I have. I am still stuck. This is not a new or rare problem. I am sure people much smarter than I am have conquered this problem.

What do I do next?

Naval jelly is mostly useless. PB blaster seems to be one of the best for freeing up rusted parts. After that I usually break out my oxy/acetylene torch. (I'm used ot working on rusty cars and the "flame wrench" solves a lot of hard problems!) Dont bother with propane. It doesnt put out enough heat. Impact is your next friend, but dont overdo it and damage the end of the tube.

Good luck!

-SP

Would ice or dry ice on the stem work? Maybe hang the bike upside down and immerse the stem in a bucket of the stuff for a minute or two? Then do the work while the stem is cold and the steerer has not yet cooled off.

Ben

It's Deja Vu all over again. Just the other day I (with an apology) asked if the OP with a similar issue had remembered to use the stem expander bolt to drive the wedge free. It was a crap shoot guess intended to eliminate an unlikely omission before he went to destructive lengths to free his stem.

It turned out I nailed it, so the same question --- is the wedge out?

In other words, did you back off the bolt say a 1/4" then tap it down with a hammer and watch it fall that 1/4"? (Edit: for bolts with heads for allen keys, I put the key in the long way and tap the key. Not a whole lot of people are going to judge you for scarring the chrome at the bottom of the hole. If it is a raised head like say a Peugeot UO-8, I'd use a wood block.)

Ben

Thanks for fleshing that out. One of the hardest things about posting here is you never know who you're writing for. Depending on my mood or the context, I'll often go with the shorthand version figuring that the OP can always ask for more, or that someone like you will come along and round out the thought.

Next, try some FreezeOff in there. Way mo' better than PB Blaster, in my opinion.