Should the red parts touch eachother? Or only the blue parts?
Right now when I tighten the headset, the red parts will squeeze together and make it a little harder to turn even with the recommended 5nm torque.
by gasberry22
Should the red parts touch eachother? Or only the blue parts?
Right now when I tighten the headset, the red parts will squeeze together and make it a little harder to turn even with the recommended 5nm torque.
by gasberry22
3 Comments
You torque the stem cap to 5nm? This should be done by feel/eye.
I think the blue part should be bearing all the load. The dust seal should just wipe the upper cup on the head tube.
On my bike, from bottom to top, it’s:
1. head tube
2. Cup/race that provides a bottom surface for the bearings to roll on (I think the cup is the race on this headset, but maybe there’s a race pressed into the cup)
3. ball bearings in retainer
4. top race or whatever you call it that provides a top surface for the bearings to roll on
5. split compression ring
6. conical spacer
7. cylindrical spacers
8. handlebar stem
9. top cap
I’m not certain what the stack would look like with cartridge bearings.
It should be clear now that I’m far from an expert, but I think that if you have the same parts then the most likely cause of your problem is that you flipped the split compression ring and somehow it’s nestled further down into the bearing than it should be, making the load-bearing stack shorter than it should be, allowing the dust seal to become load bearing, but with no bearings, resulting in friction. Part of the explanation may be damage to the compression ring or the bearing or its top race.
You can put a spacer in between.