Stuck stem on old bike

[Jo3rock]

Hi guys, this is my first post so I hope I'm putting it in the right place.
Also had a quick look around the site and couldn't find he answer so here it goes.
Picked myself up a little project, and old 70's/80's road bike (British I think)

I have been taking it apart with the idea of slowly fixing it up, I have completely stripped it down, almost ready to strip the paint, my last thing is the stem which seams to have somehow sealed itself to the forks.
There is a Allen bolt at the top which is very stiff and now become worn with my efforts to get it to loosen.

[attachment=4301]

Any tips or help would be very much appreciated. I don't know a huge amount as this is my first venture/experiment

Cheers guys and looking forward to learning a lot from these forums

Jo

[nfmisso]

Hi Jo;

You need to loosen (counterclockwise) the bolt a few turns, so that there is clearance underneath the head of the bolt, then put a block of wood on top of the bolt, and hit with a hammer until there is no clearance under the head of the bolt. Repeat until stem is loose.

[Jo3rock]

Hi Nigel

Thanks for the tip, I will keep trying but I currently can't loosen the bolt at all, the head of the bolt has worn away so an Allen key just slips through rather than getting a proper purchase on it.

Cheers

Jo

[nfmisso]

Hi Jo;

Okay, bolt is shot; what about the stem - are you trying to salvage it, or scrap it?

Salvage:
1. soak around outside edge with a penetrant; let sink in, reapply several times.
2. using a motor tool with a cutoff wheel, cut a slot in the bolt head to engage a big screw driver bit in a socket set.
3. follow procedure in my previous post.

Scrap:
1. use angle grinder to cut the stem through just below the handle bar mount.
2. check the remains of the bolt; if loose you should be able to pull off the remains of the stem. If tight, hammer it lightly with a center punch until loose.

If scrap, then I would use one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Profile-Design-Threadless-Size-Converter/dp/B0028N14GQ/
which allows the use of the now standard 1 1/8" like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Dimension-Threadless-Stem-Degree-Silver/dp/B005Z5EDE4/
which is available in lots of different lengths and angles.

[Jo3rock]

This is fantastic thank you!
Wasn't going to bother salvaging it so this is great and thank you so much for the recommendations I will look into them

Is there anyway to give kudos etc on this site because you've been great!

Cheers

Jo

[nfmisso]

Thank you