Hi all,
I'm trying to install some Burgtec jewelry on my kids Marlin and the fork must've been installed in a Friday afternoon. If I buy a star nut setter will I be able to straighten it? The factory would've used a nut setter though right? I'm not sure how it was able to be installed so off-center if they did.
The other option is to go to the hardwear store and buy some threaded rod etc, but I'll probably overcompensate if I do that and whack it too much in the other direction.
Thank you.
by sa_style
8 Comments
what i’ve done is just straighten it the best i can, and install the headset with the cap/bolt, and tighten the bolt down. the star nut will right itself according to the alignment of the headset spacers/cap.
In theory, you should be able to straighten it with careful strikes with a screwdriver on select “petals”. However, if I’m seeing the photo correctly (hard, the petals are mostly in shadow) are the petals level, meaning that maybe the center nut itself is askew as if the part is defective?
You can get packs of these fairly cheap id hammer this one down and get a new one to be safe
Was in a similar situation. Previous owner had installed the star nut at an angle. I wasn’t successfull straightening it, so I hammered it out the other end of the fork. To my surprise two starnuts fell out. He must have bodged the first one, and then the second one was good enough…
Did you check if you can get the thread started with the top cap on? The top cap will center to the head tube and hold the screw to the middle.
Alternatively the screw going into the star nut is cross threaded. If it isn’t cross threaded you can get a longer screw and start tapping it down while trying to straighten the bolt but you can accidentally tap it down too far for the bolt you have now to catch it again and then you have the option of getting a longer bolt or tapping the star nut all the way down and out and start over.
I think if you put the top cap on and can start the thread I would just tighten and not worry about it
you can usually just grab the bolt and manually force it into position. all the star nut is are some metal flanges that slide up against the inside of the steerer tube. if one side is too far up, it can be slid further down without much effort. you can not bring a side UP though, only down, but you can always get a longer bolt if it ends up too far down.
the star nut is also a really unimportant part lol. i mean, it’s important, but all it needs to be able to do is withstand the force of a headset bearing preload, which isn’t much. once the stem bolts are tightened, the star nut and preload bolt are no longer useful, you could in theory even remove them completely without affecting the bike.
so that being said, even at an angle, it’s probably good enough to get the proper preload in the headset. but, it will look ugly, and that is intolerable.
I have a special tool for setting these. I think it is made by Park. (TNS-1) Without that I might search for a stack of washers that fits in there and provides the alignment? So you are aligning the inner diameter with smaller washers and the outer diameter with larger washers. I saw a video where a guy used washers and a socket to align the star nut.
Thanks guys and girls, I appreciate you all 🙂