icemilkcoffee 

Trying to remove the headset cup from a Look KG96 frame using the usual expanding pipe tool. But the problem is that the Look frame’s carbon head tube has a small ID


So the tool’s claws don’t have much room to splay out:


It just barely catches the lip of the cup here. When I hit it with a hammer it just slips.

Is there a different tool that can be used to remove this cup?

himespau 

Do you have a long punch with a flat end that can get the top of the cup from the inside (move the end of the punch around the cup after every hit)? I did that with a headset or 2 before just buying the tool.

Trakhak

Maybe you can find a plastic plug or a cork of exactly the right diameter to push or hammer into the bottom of the expanding pipe tool when you have it inserted in place, to keep the expanding splines from slipping. Also, make sure that the bottom sections of the tool are not rounded from previous use. If they are, you could try filing or grinding them so that they're properly flat again.

icemilkcoffee 

I tried to do it with a screwdriver, but only succeeded in rounding the edge of the cup. I figure I better stop before I have no edge left to grab onto.

3alarmer 

.
...I still use a drift punch, like this one. I would not use a screwdriver, but I have also used a short pry bar in the past. Something you can use to catch the lip, but still pound on the exposed end of it.
Also, I usually dribble some ATFF/acetone mix ito the interface surface of the headset cup and the head tube, before I start the process. It's important to have the frame in your working clamp close to the head tube.

Crankycrank

Use a steel washer slighty larger than the I.D. of the head tube. Cut 2 small, parallel slices off the sides of the washer. You can now turn the washer perpendicular and insert it into the head tube and then turn it flat so that it fits into the groove between the headset cup lip and head tube. Now just use your remover to tap out the cup.

wesmamyke

Someone used to sell a kit that was essentially just a bunch of large internal retaining rings. You install one behind the cup skirt and it gives you much more to grab with the rocket tool. I use a spare steerer tube from an old suspension fork as a giant drift punch after installing the snap ring.

icemilkcoffee 

That’s a great idea. An internal retaining circlip behind the cup. I’ll try to get one from Grainger.

BTinNYC 

The tool for press fit BB is 22 mm in diameter, giving more space for the fingers to splay.

Spitballing only, because my headset tool was too big in diameter to work on the BB.

smd4

Can you just manually bend the "fingers" out so that when inserted, they make contact with the cup?

icemilkcoffee 

Mmmmm..... but how would you get that mandrel behind the cup?

The tool is some kind of tool steel and it's way too hard to bend in such a tight spot.

smd4

I would try to bend them in a vise or something, or using a tool like some vice grips, before re-inserting it in the head tube.

79pmooney

A long, cheap large screwdriver, a hammer and patience works well. (Cheap both for the low quality soft steel and the "who cares" how much you damage it as a screwdriver. My one, decades past being a respectable screwdriver - not that it ever was one - is one of my most useful and used tools. Limited use on bikes but around the house, strange projects, you name it, it gets grabbed.

BTinNYC 

A follow up (or useless trivia), the fingers on the BBT-90.3 splay out to an OD of 30.5 mm.