# Removing Stuck quill stem from fork tube



## Land O' Aches

I've got a few choices here. Currently, the stub of the quill stem, which is firmly stuck in the fork tube, is marinating in penetrating oil.

Let's review my choices:

I could buy one of those slide hammer tools on ebay, the one with that screws into a vice grip tool, and attempt to yank it out. 

I could buy one of those yellow tanks of MAPP gas and heat the tube up until it was glowing red. That might ease extraction a bit. 

No matter what I do, the other half of the wedge is still inside the fork tube, just further down. It's bound to be stuck as firmly as the piece we can see. 

Or, I could call around to find a machine shop. 

But I can't afford to ruin this fork. The odds of finding another one are slim. 

Any advice you may have to share would be appreciated. Thanks!

Lando
Seattle


----------



## redline1968

weld a nut to the top.  use a torch to heat the tube and oil it in the process moving it back and forth with a wrench.


----------



## Gordon

*stuck quill*

I have been in your situation many times in the past. I have tried every suggestion anyone has ever made and the one that ALWAYS works for me is to heat the steering tube and stem red hot with a torch and then plunge it into cold water. Sometimes I have to do it twice, but after the water I just put a pipe wrench on the stem and turn it out. A little wd40 or other lube helps speed up the removal since the heat has dried things out pretty well. Good luck.


----------



## scrubbinrims

I would position the fork upright on a 2 x 4, heat the stem nub with a torch (holding with oven mitt), then strike downwards when its nice and hot with a 5-pound sledge...easy at first before I got nasty.
Oh yeah, unscrew the race nut till it is past the edge of the threads slightly, but still threaded beforehand.
Chris


----------



## cyclebuster

if the bolt came out cleanly, flip the bike over and run the bolt in from underneath, with a pile of washers under it. then as you tighten against the washers it pulls the wedge down, and out of the way of the oil, so it can work on the stem. lots of times its all the wedges fault and the stem frees right up.


----------



## redline1968

no..............heating it red hot and cooling it instantly will temper it and shrink it tighter and ruin the fork.  beating it red hot will damage it permently. but hey its your fork do what you like.


----------



## greenephantom

If you don't have a welder, you can grind two flats (angle grinder would be perfect for this) on the stem nub and then use either a large wrench or a bench mounted vise to hold the stem.  I've had decent luck with heat in the past, torch it up, let it cool, attempt extraction.

Cheers, Geoff


----------



## Land O' Aches

*And here's how it turned out...*

I took the fork over to R&E Cycles in the Seattle university district. The mechanic on duty looked it over and said "I'll show it to the frame guys downstairs, be right back."

As I browsed through their selection of fine bikes and tools, the floor began to shake with loud hammer blows from the basement. Bam, bam, bam, then a pause, then a few more bams.

If you have kids, you'll know what I mean by the power of these blows - most of the time, kid falls down, cries a bit, goes back to playing. But now and then they'll fall down so hard that you not only hear the noise, you actually feel the impact through the framework of the house. That's the kind of hammer blows we're talking about here. 

A few minutes later the mechanic returned with my fork in one gloved hand, and a smoldering hot piece of steel bar stock in the other. The frame guys had welded the bar stock to the surviving chunk of quill, added a nut for leverage and proceeded to beat/pull on the offending contraption with all their might. "We both had to take turns on it," the mechanic said, "but things like this help us deal with unresolved issues." 

The fork was in perfect shape. The bar stock, not so much.

So it's Little Lando, happy at last. The wedge is still stuck in the tube, but I should be able to deal with that on my own. 

Here's my plan - center punch and drill though the remains of the adjusting bolt with a 13/64" bit. Once through, thread the hole for a long piece of 1/4 - 20 threaded rod. Once the All-Thread gets through the wedge and hits the bottom of the tube, the wedge will be compelled to rise up and out. If the tube in front of it is clean and polished, the wedge just might do it. Stay tuned...


----------



## Iverider

*edit* Saw you solved this problem, but thought I'd leave the message anyway

I would grind a flat on each side of the stem chunk. Stick the fork in the freezer overnight. Clamp the flat of the stem chunk in a bench vice upside down. Run the torch around the steerer tube evenly heating it, and moving it around to expand the steerer slightly. At the same time twist and pull the fork away from the vice (upward) using a welding glove to keep your skin from bubbling. It might be nice to have friend using the torch so you can pull and twist with both hands. You may want to bolt a hub in the dropouts to prevent the fork legs from twisting.

You don't want to heat the steerer tube to red hot. You're trying to avoid heating the stem chunk. If it expands at the same rate as the steerer tube you won't be any better off. You just want to heat it enough to expand it a little. As said before, you don't want to quench the tube with cold water. Just let it cool down on its own.


----------



## fattommy

*amen to all the included advice,  what I did was---*

I drenched the inside of the head tube with WD40 and applied a little heat to the stem with a propane torch.  Then I used a muffler tool (the vibrating air hammer tool) with a blunt tip.  I inserted a straight rod through the stem and hit it with the air hammer.  Viola the wedge broke loose and I was able to work the stem out.


----------



## Old-Bikes

the steering column could possibly be replaced by a frame builder... but it's expensive. a little heat never hurts either, if you heat it few times (the column only, not the wedge), it could break loose the rust.


----------



## scrubbinrims

*the remedy*

I commented earlier, but when it was mentioned that heat EXPANDS metal, I decided to torch the tube (not the quill)
In advance, I wire wheeled any rust at the quill/tube junction and then clamped on a vice grip to the stem quill and worked on a bench where I could put my knee on a board with the fork blade secured underneath my weight.
Are you following me?
I then heated the column and worked out the wedge with an oven mitt.
It worked!
Chris


----------



## Old-Bikes

yes, I see what you did... and isn't it satisfying to take it apart?


----------

