Beater Bike Headset Help

[pbarry]

Promised a co-worker I'd locate a new fork and install it on their Vitus 979 frame that's seen a lot of miles: The original fork had a dropout that was all-the-way loose. Found a barely used LeMond carbon fork for cheap and, (thanks to OP), had Marc Nobilette extend the threads. Bent one of the jaws on a Park crown race puller getting the crown race off. This baby has seen some rain..

Thought I should pull the headset cups and re-install them with copper anti-seize. The bottom cup loosened when the removal tool was installed! No force required to pull it. In the moment, I cleaned all interfaces, and used 4 or 5 wraps of Teflon tape on the lower cup, and pressed the cups back in. In retrospect, not happy with this solution. Just guessing, but there's 5-10 thousandths of space between the OD of the bottom cup, and the ID of the head tube.

This is a grocery getter/lock it up outside the pub bike. Head tube looks ok, not ovalized. Tempted to glue the lower cup in with JB weld, and some shims placed every 90 degrees to make sure it's centered.

Any other ideas?

[Peter P.]

Use Loctite for press-fit applications. I use Loctite 680.

Clean both contact surfaces with alcohol, let dry a few minutes, then apply the 680 to both surfaces.

Tip: Press in only 1 cup at a time. Invariably, installing the cups simultaneously will result in both cups starting in crooked, and that can lead to ovalized headtubes especially with the Vitus' aluminum.

[pbarry]

Thanks, Peter. Unfortunately, there is no press-fit interface. There is a gap between the OD of the cup and the I'D of the headset. Locktite won't fill this.

[lonoeightysix]

The Henkel site shows 680 good for a .015 gap. Worth a shot.

[pbarry]

Yowza. Had no idea Locktite could fill that much space.

[pinkshogun]

on more than one occasional i took out my hammer and punch and made evenly spaced strikes around the inside of the headtube where the cups would sit

these impressions make a little raised area that greatly fills the void by a-too- bigguva cup or crown race

[cmbicycles]

Loctite 660 "quick metal" fills up to a .020 gap as well, its available a number of places. Other option would be to try to knurl the cup interface + Loctite, but the 660 Loctite is probably your easiest and least expensive option depending on the size of the gap.

[ultraman6970]

NO kidding ok?? use white out, the white thing to do corrections. Just put it in, wait till dry and put the cup in. Maybe any other type of paint will work too, the white out is thick and wont desintegrate, is like primer.

Good luck.

[oldpotatoe]

Promised a co-worker I'd locate a new fork and install it on their Vitus 979 frame that's seen a lot of miles: The original fork had a dropout that was all-the-way loose. Found a barely used LeMond carbon fork for cheap and, (thanks to OP), had Marc Nobilette extend the threads. Bent one of the jaws on a Park crown race puller getting the crown race off. This baby has seen some rain..

Thought I should pull the headset cups and re-install them with copper anti-seize. The bottom cup loosened when the removal tool was installed! No force required to pull it. In the moment, I cleaned all interfaces, and used 4 or 5 wraps of Teflon tape on the lower cup, and pressed the cups back in. In retrospect, not happy with this solution. Just guessing, but there's 5-10 thousandths of space between the OD of the bottom cup, and the ID of the head tube.

This is a grocery getter/lock it up outside the pub bike. Head tube looks ok, not ovalized. Tempted to glue the lower cup in with JB weld, and some shims placed every 90 degrees to make sure it's centered.

Any other ideas?

Might try knurling the cup, peening the cup, or like you said, JB weld or a filling type loctite with beer can shims, easy to trim once they are in. Ovalized head tube, aluminum headtube..but

[Gummee]

Before you go to the trouble of banging on the frame and potentially ruining it, you SURE that the Vitus didn't run some kind of French HS standard?

I've never owned one, and am too lazy to google that for you

M

[ultraman6970]

The bb's came in 3 stardards, the front tubes I really cant rememeber.

[pbarry]

Thanks for all the excellent ideas, people! I'll pull things apart tonight and use one or more of the remedies mentioned.

Checked Sheldon Brown re: French headset diameter--the press fits parts are standard, identical to BSA. The headset on the Vitus is a Shimano 600.

[oldpotatoe]

The bb's came in 3 stardards, the front tubes I really cant rememeber.

Actually 4 but who's counting...

Far superior Italian
British
Swiss
French

Some other odd balls like raleigh and others.