Dylansbob 

Just about to try, I think.

The Bob Jackson I got has a seized 3t stem with a cone expander that's pretty well frozen. The fork tubing is superlight, so I've been hesitant to put much force through lateral torque. Idealy, I'd clamp the crown in my vise, but I don't have enough physical room around it to do that. It's been a few weeks of spraying some penetrating oil at both ends, after having loosened the headset top cap to allow more access to the stem/steerer tube junction. I've then been using a long tap from underneath and giving it some good hammer blows to.

My plan has been to tray soak the frame a tube at a time. I'm hoping the oil I've used don't protect that cone too much. Maybe I should have started with this treatment.

Spaghetti Legs 

I am at this very moment experimenting with that. I just had failure after overnight application of Pblaster. I don’t have much patience at the moment so I just sawed off the stem head so I could remove the headset and it’s sitting now with evaporate soaked rag stuffed down the steerer. Failing that, I might next pour some Barkeepers friend down there next.

Dylansbob 

Maybe I'll wait a bit and see how your's goes before I go further....

oneclick 

Does the bolt come all the way out?

Get a same-thread bolt of a shorter length (get a good-grade one) and some stout washers and pull the cone down from under the fork crown.

cbrstar

ATF mixed with acetone and a bit of heat works well.

RustyJames 

GREAT idea!

Patience with penetrating fluid is a good thing

dweenk

I don't think that Evaporust works like that. It does remove rust, but in my experience, it does not penetrate. I would use a product like PB Blaster, Liquid Wrench, or a homemade concoction like ATF mixed with acetone to free stuck parts.

francophile 

Not sure what your tool resources look like, but this method has helped me free a few stems now. Stem is trashed after, but no damage to any bike I've resorted to this with.

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...tuck-stem.html

Scroll down for pics of the setup. Meanwhile, if you have a pneumatic hammer and a pickle fork attachment, it turns this into a 20-30 second job with zero potential for tubing impact and (edit) stem was salvageable last time I went pneumatic.

wesmamyke

I had mixed results with two different VAR tools. One was the giant cotter press, the adjusting screw was frozen. Worked great, the whole tool cleaned up well.

Second tool was a freewheel vise thing, that did not come unstuck, but I also think the pins are a little bent.

unterhausen

I'm going to try ATF and acetone on the next thing that's rusted shut. I did a garage cleanup and realized I have ATF I'm never going to use. I think PB blaster and similar are okay, but the internet tells me that ATF/Ace is much better.

Dylansbob 

Hmmm, this looks like the way I should go. I'll have to make a trip out to Harborfreight.

Sooooo, how did you mount the bike to your repair stand for? Still seatpost?

francophile 

I can get away with a bit more than some because the bench-mount BikeHand stand I use has a foam-rubber-ish grip inside the clamp, which with all the torquing I typically do, has never damaged tubing on any bike I've ever worked on.

I had nobody to help with the Ishawata .22 tubed Trek pictured in that thread, it's a bit thicker-walled, I got away with mounting it upside down by the seat tube, nearest the BB, using a halved foam-lined piece of (3/4"?) of PVC to protect the downtube from the clamp if the seat tube slipped.

However, the prior two stems I dealt with, I had a friend hold the bike in place, and I just hammered upward with a BFH and the pickle fork. No clamping necessary. But you better take extreme care to aim straight.

The last two, I used a pneumatic hammer, so no leverage required. Just leave the wheels on, take the handlebar off, stand over the bike and sit on the TT a bit, position the pneumatic hammer, and BZZZZZTTTTT, right off. If the jaw on your pickle fork attachment is wide enough, I'm guessing you could put a cloth or cardboard in its jaw to soften the blow to the stem, but it barely left a mark going the pneumatic route.

If I were you, and you have a small compressor (I'm just using a ~2gal pancake), I'd say get:

- Their $12 impact hammer: https://www.harborfreight.com/air-to...kit-92037.html
- Their $10 ball joint 15/16" separator: https://www.harborfreight.com/15-16-...tor-66315.html

Full disclosure: Prior to having kids, I overhauled 50s-70s classic cars and the occasional motorcycle in tandem with bikes. I have a crapload of tools, more than your average person, and sometimes I forget the fine details. I think I used a 15/16" ball joint separator and not one of my pneumatic tie rod attachments. 15/16" is 23.8mm. Typical standard stem is 22.2, so ... flying by the seat of my pants here and hoping I'm not misinforming you on which $10 bit to buy. Tie rod separators I'd normally have on hand are smaller diameter.