Have I screwed my headset?

thomyorke

Hi chaps, was told I needed my forks servicing to fix my loose headset, got home loosened stem and gave the cap bolt a good tighten, which to my delight completely removed the play.

I then realised I could barely steer, and now even with the top cap completely loose the fork still doesn't swing freely, I fear I have damaged it in some way by overtightening the cap bolt, does this sound likely?

Many thanks

Chunkers1980

First para is just wrong, they are not related.

And yes, over tightening and using it could have caused that very easily.

thomyorke

haven't used it, maybe done some damage to the bearings or crown race though, can't figure how it won't move loosely at all after one tighten

Neal_

As Chunkers said a fork service and loose headset are totally unrelated, whoever told you this is a moron are trying to scam you out of some cash for unnecessary work but either way avoid them.

Did you loosen the stem clamp bolts when you loosened the stem cap bolt? Also when you've done this give the forks a wiggle to see if that moves it as the top compression ring of the headset may be tight on the fork steerer. It's very unlikely over tightening the stem cap bolt without using the bike will damage anything although damage may have been done to the headset bearings by riding it while it was loose.

No huge stress though as you can pick up a complete new headset for £25ish or if it has cartridge bearings just replace them

eg

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/index.ph ... =1&sort=3a

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/index.ph ... =1&sort=3a

benpinnick

Have you also loosened the stem bolts as Neal says? Loosening the top cap has no effect on the headset tightness unless you loosen the stem too, but tightening the top cap can tighten the headset up, even without loosening stem bolts (it just pushes the stem down by brute force).

Correct procedure:

1. Loosen top cap
2. Loosen stem bolts
3. tighten top cap until no play in headset but steering is ok (test by moving wheel not handlebars - stem is now loose remember!).
4. Line up stem with front wheel.
5. Tighten Stem bolts.
6. Go Ride.

thomyorke

Much appreciated, couldn't quite get the balance right, just took it to a different, smaller bike shop and he sorted it for free, i didn't quite get what chunk meant at first but its now obvious the first fella was lying that my bike was a death trap and trying to charge me £90 for such a small issue. He had a weasely smirk about him and I didn't like the way he was muttering to his pal when he booked me in!

Just back from my first bit of trail, a thoroughly enjoyable 4 miles, I'm very grateful for the advice here seems a superb community that will work wonders for both my riding and ability to deal with bike shop staff

The Rookie

Name and shame!

Learn to do your own maintenace, MTB's often need minor fettling due to the type of riding and paying a shop for every little job would be very expensive!

carbonkid

halfords???? sounds like them

The Rookie

An ignorant and purely specualtive guess.....why bother, sounds like many stores, just because Halfords are the biggest chain.....