Cycle Tourist

I've been wrenching threaded headsets mostly and threadless headsets don't look too awfully difficult but I haven't seen any videos to explain this.
I pulled the bars and unclamped the stem but the bearing cups won't unscrew cause the tube is larger at the top. It obviously won't push down so how do I get to the bearings to service them. You may think I'm nuts but here are the pictures. What in the wide world of sports do I do now?

dedhed

That's a threaded headset with a threadless adaptor in it rather than a normal quill stem

DOS

I was wondering what the hell that was. If it works like a quill,does op just need to give it a wack to pop the wedge loose?

Cycle Tourist

OK. I get that. How do you get it apart, short of a hacksaw??

Cycle Tourist

What wedge? There's no bolt to jam the wedge.

dedhed

Without being able to see below the star nut, I'd suspect an allan wrench in the middle of the star nut, or remove the star nut to get at the allan holding the wedge.

dedhed

Was there a brand name on the cap?

Andrew R Stewart 

Likely the wedge bolt is inside the steerer extension. The necking down section makes a nice seat for a pressure washer that the bolt head sits on. Like Zoom stems from the early 1990s and a currently made steerer extension (forgot the brand). Likely also takes a 4 or 5mm hex wrench. Can you look inside the steerer past both the star not at the top and the crown at the bottom and tell us what you see? Andy

Cycle Tourist

Sorry. I got a feeling your right. I think there's a wedge in there but Allen wrenches small enough to get past the star don't seem to grab anything. Getting the star out seems my only option.

DOS

I was assuming the missing top cap bolt also engaged the wedge. Where is that bolt and how long is it? In any event, hit the thing with a mallet and see if it comes loose.

Cycle Tourist

Can't see anything past the star. Maybe the wedge was tightened then the star out in. I guess drilling out the star is my best option.

Andrew R Stewart 

Some steerer extensions have a wedge draw bolt that has a threaded hole running through it. (Typically a M6 bolt using a 6mm hex fitting and a M5 hole for the Cap draw bolt). I suppose that this feature might have been either damaged or not discovered so the installer installed a star nut instead. Andy

Andrew R Stewart 

One can usually just pry the star nut out with screwdrivers and needle nose pliers. Andy

Cycle Tourist

Gotcha. No, the 3T cap has a short bolt. It wouldn't reach a wedge. I can see a shinny bolt end presumably screwed into a wedge from the bottom side. My best bet I think is drilling out the star to get to the bolt and then replacing the star. I've put the thing away for tonight. Thanks guys. At least I have a clue now.🙄

Cycle Tourist

Thanks. I'll try that first before getting out the drill.

frankenmike 

I can’t imagine what the starnut is for with that setup- the bearings are loaded independent of the adaptor. Thankfully the starnut isn’t set very deep, so should be fairly easy to remove.

Cycle Tourist

The star is used to attach the cap only. Well, that and effectively block my ability to access the bolt that presumably tensions the wedge in the steerer tube. I'll be sure of that once I have breakfast and "have a go" at getting the star out.☕

canklecat

Before drilling or prying, check with Robbie Tunes on the C&V forum. He's used various conversions for putting threadless on quill stem bikes. Ditto RJ the Bike Guy on YouTube.

Cycle Tourist

Thanks Andy and company. I had to drill out the center of the star, pried out the butterflies and expose the bolt head. The wedge was easily loosened and everything came out.
The bearings were totally shot with is probably why I got the Allez so cheap.
Anyway, with a new headset and star this episode is closed and I'm smarter than I was yesterday. You guy are the best.

DOS

I might have been inclined to get a quill stem and go back to using the threaded headset as designed.