cudak888 

I'll put an guess that that the OP's version of the stem - despite the stock pictures of similar stems with a wedge design - is an expander type.

If so, it might have been tightened so much at one point as to bulge the steerer tube and the bottom of the stem with it. Hence, even though the expander is loose, the stem and steerer might be mushroomed ever so slightly, making it wider than the tube that it needs to come back through.

I'd recommend clamping a long pipe where the handlebar used to be (preferably of a close enough size that you can tighten the stem onto it), flipping the bike upside down, standing on the pipe - preferably one person per side - and spin the fork from the front wheel while pulling up with all possible force on said wheel. Keep as much lubrication dribbling down the bottom of the fork crown as possible as the friction heats everything up.

-Kurt

seypat

The suspense is killing me!

madpogue 

A whole day and no updates?


Asking for a friend.....

repechage

Small chance that the stem has bulged the steerer- even with the bolt removed the stem can be trapped.

might remove the bolt and attempt to tap the expander free- the bolt end shifted to one sides alternately a rod to insure no damage to the stem bolt.
if the expander is deemed free...
and still no success. Whacking the stem ear the bar clamp maybe with even something in the bar port and tightened up, to collapse the expanded portion of the stem.

xiaoman1 

ConnoisseurEqua Hoping that all went well, did you get the stem out?

smd4

How would making the steerer larger in diameter than the stem or wedge trap said stem or wedge?

cudak888 

It would trap the stem if the steerer were expanded from the overtightening of a stem with a cone-shaped expander nut - thus bulging both the steerer and stem at the same time:



We still haven't ascertained with certainty that the OP's stem is not a variation with an expander nut and not a wedge.

-Kurt

dddd

If the quill is also expanded!

Yes, I've seen this, where the conical wedge got drawn up into the quill, bulging it out visibly!

madpogue 

+1, exactly why removing the wheel and brake through-bolt, and getting a well-lit photo from the underside, is the next order of business. (According to my friend, who's uncannily curious about the situation.....)

cudak888 

Agreed, though it may not be possible to identify the stem that way. It's a lot easier to identify the wedge type bobbling around the steerer, especially the conical type. Those tend to spin about when loose, unlike the wedge design.

-Kurt

Drillium Dude 

I hope it doesn't last much longer.

DD

cudak888 

You can bet pulling the stem will.

-Kurt

xiaoman1 

RustyJames 

Geez people, maybe the OP is super busy with work and hasn’t had time to post or wrench on the bike.

jdawginsc 

Tenacious thread...

RustyJames 

🤣🤣

cudak888 

Maybe what the stem needs is some Phil Wood Tenacious Oil.

-Kurt

repechage

Like the Dirty Harry movie opening scene-

"I gots to know"

xiaoman1 

^^^^^^ @repechage

Best, Ben

merziac

I don't think he's laughing at himself anymore, or us.

Hope he's making some kind of progress.

Gonna surmise here that he may be in over his head with us, we think we know what we're doing but this situation would seem to indicate otherwise despite our best efforts.

He/we would seem to be at the point where the OP will have to experience an epiphany, divine intervention or an "AHA" moment to move forward, maybe all three.

Many here would have already hit the brute force option, but being the old steel nail that it is, results could be catastrophic which may be the way it has to be here but we don't know, yet.

xiaoman1 

M,
A good call on your part, perhaps since we all seem to recognize one another, it can be easy for us to banter back and forth with each other....that being said, I can see that being a newbie might make it difficult to become part of the "fold".
Best, Ben

cudak888 

I think it'd be pretty hard as a newbie just to believe how much effort it might take to ram that stem out.

At this point, I'd recommend cutting it off above the headset just so the fork can be dropped out of the frame and the steerer tube inspected for bulging. It might be so bulged that it isn't safe to use the fork in the first place.

-Kurt

merziac

The road to H**L....

We certainly mean well but plenty of times we spin up, throw the book at it, but if its not one of the top easy 3 things we normally see, it can turn into a bonafide azz whoopin for the new OP as it has for us so many times, at which point they may say , why can't I figure this out with all this help.

Well they don't know that we may not be able to figure it out at that point either.

I was a FoMoCo Sr. Master Tech for 20 years and have had way more than my share of whoopins in that arena, always loved it when the hotline engineers said "huh, don't know what to tell ya, let us know what you find." which was almost all the time with me because I didn't call them until I had turned myself inside out several times before I called those geniuses.

merziac

If he has to cut it to get it out, he's gonna need you to send him a stem, fork too ifn it is toast also.

You do have another super long one for him, right?

cudak888 

That's one of those later UK-spec Raleigh Sports continuation models too; might use the same fork as an 1979/80+ Sports, but chances are it's slightly different. Might even be 24TPI.

As for stems and forks, nope, nothing on hand. Has to be some shops over there filled with 3-speeds to pilfer parts from though. At this point, I'd commit to the stem cut knowing full well that the steerer may be bulged beyond safe reuse, thus making the whole extraction process an exercise in more work than necessary.

Of course, the steerer may still be intact too, making this a venture in its own right. All depends on how much sweat one's willing to put into it, as the trick is finding enough vertical force while twisting to get the stem to pull out.

There is, of course, the possibility of adapting one of Jack the Bike Man's tricks for stuck seatposts: Cut the stem off with about 2" to spare. Pull fork, remove front wheel, clamp fork crown (with padding) in vise. Get deep impact socket just a touch larger than the stem, slide it over, drill a hole through impact socket and stem (but not steerer!), install bolt through the whole shebang. Make another hole 90 degrees to that (and about an inch higher or lower), also install a bolt in that one. Then connect up impact wrench, hit the gas, and pull up. It just might do the trick.

-Kurt