Gitane Gran Sport Head set problem.
 

A few years ago I adopted a faded green Gitane Grand Sport with missing pieces. I ignored what might have been trash til this weekend. BF C&V has inspired me. The BB Fixed cup is very "fixed" but went back together smoothly. Headset was rough and I expected it to also go back together smoothly, but I have had no luck. The upper adjustable race stays relatively fixed resulting in a too tight HS on a left turn and a too loose HS on a right turn. From top down I have locknut, keyed spacer, keyed front brake cable guide, keyed spacer, adjustable race, bearings in retainer, upper race, HT lower race bearings in retainer, crown race. Can someone direct me to a schematic?

How embarrassing!
 

I'm looking at my photos and notice that the HT decal is upside down. That is weird. Not really. The frame was upside down from my BB exercise. It's all good now. My faith is restored. I'm sure some of you have installed bearing races 4 different ways::crash:

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Notice you are reusing the stock retainers. A smoother mechanism would result from the fitment of new loose balls. Would also be more resistant to brinelling.

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Those keyed washers with a flat or a small tongue on them were just not ya good idea from the French. They just end up fouling the threads on a lot of steerer tubes, especially if the turn together with the lock nut when tightening or removing, as a lot of them fitted loosely around the steerer tubes.
I always just grind off the flats or the tongues off these washers with my Dremel to avoid such damage......
I'd do the same to centerpull brake cable hanger/stops like you have there, if it has a flat or a tongue on it.

And now you have a great story to tell your buddies. ;-)

I never keep the bearing retainers when I do rebuilds. When you take the loose balls out and install them, you'll notice that you have ample space left for additional bearings, which means more rollers on the races, which means less wear on the surfaces. Plus, so I don't have to remember which way the race faces, I make sure I only use uni-directional bearings:)

I would go a bit further to solve this.
Remove the cups and have the headset faced - top and bottom surfaces milled to parallel.
This grade of steel frame would not have had this done at manufacture.
Once parallel, all pieces should line up for smooth(er) operation.
Loose balls over retainer will also add more bearings and points of contact -
a good thing in my opinion.

Curious if this french headset has the mysterious floating top cup?