Fork tightening

apple eater

I'm getting there!

Final isue is when tightening the forks only just abov hand tight they go really stiff.

I lost my cool and smashed the star nut in the stem out. I nipped over to halfords and have bought another.

Now i have thee questions

1. Which way in do put the star nut? Is it from the top of the forks down or from the bottom up?

2. Which way up doesthe nut go in? is it with the fronds pointing down or with the fronds facing upwards?

3. Why would the forks stiffen up so much with such little torque on the nut in the stem?

They are not bent or dirty and the bearings move fine.

1mancity2

1. starnut fits from top of forks, set around 10mm down the steerer tube
2.starnut goes, so the prongs point up the tube.
3.poorly seated bearings/crown race/cups or headset is assembled incorrectly.

nicklouse

Read Parktools.

You did change fit the crown race that came with the new headset?

apple eater

My post is a little lacking regarding the stiffness.

The bike is 100% standard and original. It is in near unused condition and kept indoors at all times.

However the comment on the location of the starnut is interesting as it was definitely deeper than 10 mm in the tube. I'm thinking it was too deep and pressing out the tube into the bearing cases?

cooldad

Not sure what you mean by 'pressing out of the tube' but a bit deeper makes no difference as long as the top cap bolt reaches it.

apple eater

By pressing out of the tube i mean that the star nut was putting direct pressure on the tube in contact with the bearings or near and as such maybe a bit of metal stretch causing the tight fitting?

386ka

apple eater wrote:

By pressing out of the tube i mean that the star nut was putting direct pressure on the tube in contact with the bearings or near and as such maybe a bit of metal stretch causing the tight fitting?

Definitely that is not the case.

nicklouse

Star nut position makes no deference as long as the top cap does not bottom out on it and the bolt reaches it.

cooldad

If you are saying what I think you are saying - no. There is no way a star nut can 'stretch' a steerer tube.

cooldad

You don't need the top cap very tight, just enough to take the play out of the system. It's the stem that holds everything together. Once that's tightened you could take the top cap off and starnut out. It's redundant.
Although you wouldn't as you'll need them again.

chez_m356

apple eater wrote:

Why would the forks stiffen up so much with such little torque on the nut in the stem?

by hand tight, i hope you don't mean as tight as you can do it by hand, you only need between 1 and 2N of torque, which isn't much more than finger tight, never mind hand tight