I bought this old Schwinn bike off of FB marketplace for cheap. It's been pretty easy restoration until this part. Everything is unscrewed but the fork and stem won't separate, even when I hit it with a hammer. I'm thinking the parts have rusted tight. (Or maybe I've forgotten a step, this is my first restoration and this bike it so old, theres no online resources for it.) What solutions do y'all have for me?
by dill0n_smi
5 Comments
I take it you removed the stem bolt on top? That’s what holds the stem on to the fork. It’s just rust now holding things together. PS no need to take the headset apart to remove the stem.
Usually, if a stem doesn’t come out, I spray a gallon of WD40 down the steerer and wait a bit. That bit where the stem enters the steerer looks pretty rusted and dry, you should spray some solvent down there. Try tapping the stem up or tapping the fork down. Be careful of the headset assembly, they might fly everywhere.
It’s probably rust holding it in there. Get some penetrating oil and let it sit overnight.
You have an alloy stem, inside a steel fork steerer tube, add water and the two metals bind together. Penetrant oil/spray down the steerer when the bike is upside down, leave overnight and repeat a few times. Heat can be applied to the threaded steerer thread to help break the grip, but not excessively.
That’s a quill stem that uses a wedge to bind the stem to the steering tube. The long bolt that you removed from the stem tightens the wedge.
Place the bolt back into the stem but don’t screw it in. Tap it with a hammer to loosen the wedge.