Hi guys,

I have an 30+ years old Puch Leader and in 2017 i changed only the most important parts (fast as hell in the middle of the season). This spring I decide to finish evething else I can, without spending too much money. I take down everything, clean, sand, polish, grease. Perfect but my stem is stuck The same happened with seatpost, but vise helped. Do you know some trick to release it. Please help

Loosen the long drop bolt. Tap it with a mallet or hammer to make the beveled nut drop.
Still stuck? PB blaster around neck of steering tube/stem, 4 hours or more of patience, back in the vise.

I just did as oddjob advises above and got my stem out. Soaked for probably 24hrs though, and scored the stem in the forks with a sharp knife to try let some pb down there (not sure if that helped but made me feel like I was doing something!)

I put an old wheel on and inserted old bars, then wrapped the wheel in a thick old sheet so I could pin it with my knees then twisted the bars. Took a lot of effort and a lot of wiggling but eventually got it free.

if you have room (not pushed down too far) loosen and pull up headset so you can clean any old grease around the stem/steering tube junction (which will stop your pb blaster) and also get a more direct spray inside.

I tried to free a stuck stem once by putting the stem in the vise, putting the front wheel on and then twisting the wheel. Managed to snap off a fork drop out!

Now my approach is to put the fork crown in the vise (with padding), dribble a 50/50 mixture of automatic transmission fluid and acetone in there (from the top and also flip it over and dribble some in via the bottom of the fork crown) and let it soak for 24 hours. Then use the handlebars as leverage. If it doesn't move at first, another round of ATF/acetone, and try again.

I was looking for a frame in 2009 to replace my damaged Le Champ. Found a very nice Celeste Bianchi and was about to buy it until I noticed a dent near the crown on one of the fork legs. There was another on the other leg but in the front. Don't use fork legs as part of the force network.

See Post #7. The dents in the Bianchi fork legs matched the 2" dimension of a 2x4.

I've also busted a dropout, while twisting on an old Motebecane's handlebar, but it was a cheaper model and the brazing there clearly wasn't very good.


I have used a 4' long X 4" wide X 1" thick stick of TREX decking as a lever, inserted between the fork legs, and while this has proven better than any other methods I have tried, one should be cautious. Perhaps installing a hub or hub axle assembly with a quick-release skewer would add some bracing for a particularly hard effort?

Thank you for advises! I will try everything possible. I cant even loosen the bolt, and I know it will be a challenge, just like the seatpost, but i dont wanna use vise in that case. Maybe I can buy cheap old wheel and bar - its a good idea. Thanks!

By “loosen the bolt” do you mean the wedge/expander is still up inside the quill stem? If that’s the case you need to get that out before trying any of the above (aside from pb blaster on the nut).

Of course

Internally corroded stems can be a pain.

No one's mentioned this, and it's pretty obvious, but just in case: Turn the bike upside down. Spray in your favorite penetrant from through the fork crown below. Use a lot. That should free up the stem bolt. You can use a fair amount of torque to do this.

I don't really like the brute force methods. You're likely to damage stuff. It's not how it would be done in most bike shops.

Sometimes it's helpful to tap the stem out from below. Good idea to remove the front brake.

If all else fails, heat and cold will free up pretty much anything. But that method has its own hazards so I'm not going to describe it.

The only way to do it in situations like this!
Best, Ben

If this did not damage the fork, then you got very lucky. I, in my infinite lack of wisdom, did destroy a nice fork set doing this sort of thing. Forcing anything, in the mechanical field, is a questionable way to go, darn near every time. Just an old man'd opinion, of course.

I had a frame with a stuck seatpost. I put the seatpost in my vise and rotated the frame around it. One of the seatstays came undone from the seat lug. The frame was then toast. Luckily, it wasn't valuable.

I've done this, it works pretty well even without bars if you have a big enough wrench

Forget the PB Blaster. Use a 50-50 ratio of ATF/Acetone. Soak it, wait, profit.

Had this on my Tommasini. I used repeated applications of PB Blaster over a period of weeks, from above and below, also with a lot of tapping on the stem with a piece of maple. The wedge/expander was loose from the start, so it wasn't that. I think because I'd been cautioned by [MENTION=84826]randyjawa[/MENTION] I took my time, and never got too crazy in forcing anything. I was also rebuilding other parts of the bike, so I had no reason to rush, and I was hoping to preserve the stem. My patience eventually paid off. I've tried ATF/acetone since then, on a stuck seatpost (no luck on that one), but I have read that it's even better than Kroil, which is apparently better than PB Blaster.

Edit to add: The heat/cold trick didn't do anything for me.

Yo, ho, ho, the stem is out. Just like Salamandrine, I don't want to force it, because its the only one bike, I have. So i go to my work place with my bike - there is a very very long instrument for the bolt (i don''t know the word in english). Slowly with a minumum pressure - its free. There's not even a scratch. I used some very thick grease for motorcycle chain. The same i use for my chain.

Thank you for advices You are great!