Unable to dial in headset.

Been getting some headset 'knocking' when I hit small bumps on my track bike. If I tighten it just a little bit more I loose the smoothness and can hear some resistance when moving my bars. Nothing drastic, just some light grinding for lack of better words. Is there a good chance this headset was over tightened by the last owner?

Just can't seem to find that sweet spot with out it knocking during riding and being to tight.

Sounds to me like you either,
a - don't have the right tools, or
b - have a notched headset that is beyond salvage.

this might be a bit of a tangent but have you checked the wheel bearings
heard a story once about someone tightening and re tightening their stem and headset only to find out it was the wheel bearings that were loose and not feeling right, headset was fine all along

just a thought

There may be an extra ball in there or the wrong size balls. Or one of them is the wrong size. Actually, that first suggestion sounds ridiculous, so I'll withdraw it.

If you want to check the headset on a normal bike, you do it by rocking the front with the front brake on. On a track frame, you gotta turn the bars 90 degrees and then rock the front.

Tried the rocking method when I was getting "knocking" and there was hardly any wobble. For now my stem has some resistance, far from overtightened a few degrees away from smooth as butter. I think I'm just going to have to take it to my lbs. Cant help but feel it was overtightened from the previous owner.

i once bought a bike which kept doing this, found out the headset had a caged bearing placed in the wrong way up.. felt ok for a few minutes when tightened but would soon start knocking..

Hmm, Im going to need to purchase a larger wrench and just get in there… Thanks for the troubleshooting ideas!

I had a dura ace headset do this, there were 2 very thin black seals that looked like they would fit in either way, head scratching then googling revealed that they had to be fitted a certain way up. I did this and it cured the problem.